


Secrets In Indigo

by Sinnatious



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Crossdressing, Existential Crisis, Gen, Identity Reveal, Immortality, Secret Identity, Suicide Attempt, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-20 19:45:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18531904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinnatious/pseuds/Sinnatious
Summary: A throwaway comment about Kaitou KID’s eye colour sets Kaito on an uncomfortable path of discovery.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I’m not 100% sure why last time I did a fic binge a significant portion of fandom had decided that Kaito’s eyes were kind of purple, but I decided to run with it, and plot bunnies formed. Pretty sure this idea has been done somewhere in fandom before but fear of genre saturation has never stopped me yet. It's bit of a slapdash fic but hope you enjoy it regardless.

 

It started with the tiniest of contradictions. A throwaway comment Kaito just happened to overhear.

His classmates were discussing the latest announcement for a KID Heist. As always, Momoi led the charge, enthusiastically espousing her hero’s many virtues.

“Kaitou KID’s amazing!” Momoi’s gaze had taken on a day-dreamy glaze. “He’s so cool! He’s like a dashing prince right out of a fairy tale.”

Aoko all but jumped from her desk into the fray, slamming her hand down with a crack. “How can you say that, Keiko?! He’s a criminal and he should be brought to justice!”

“But he always returns what he steals!” The whine was predictable – the same conversation they’d had twenty times before. Kaito was on the verge of tuning out, flashing a smirk at Hakuba who looked even more bored of the routine. Until Momoi sighed, “And those lovely purple eyes…”

“Huh? KID’s eyes aren’t purple,” Kaito stated, attention swivelling back to the conversation. Had he somehow missed an imposter?

“Of course they aren’t purple,” Aoko agreed, relieving him immensely. Until she ruined it by going on to say, “He’s obviously wearing contacts or something.”

Hakuba was giving him an odd look. “KID’s so-called number one fan didn’t know that?”

Kaito laughed. “Purple’s just a bit extreme, isn’t it?”

It didn’t deter the teenage detective. “Officially, on the police profile they’re described as indigo… although admittedly there  _have_  been conflicting reports, with just as many describing blue. So Nakamori is most likely correct, and the discrepancy can be explained by contacts.”

Which made perfect sense, considering Kaito wore contacts all the time when in disguise.

Except he  _definitely_  didn’t have any ‘indigo’ contacts, and he certainly didn’t bother with contacts when dressed as  _himself_.

“He’s obviously vain,” Aoko sniffed. “Can’t settle for an ordinary eye colour.”

…Maybe it was just because of the contrast of the white outfit? Or the pink smoke, or flash bombs messing with people’s colour perception. Or even differing colour sensitivity! People argued over blue and green all the time, after all.

Kaito reassured himself with that explanation, and didn’t think of the matter again for weeks.

 

………………

 

Kaito spun out of the reach of those dangerous fingers, settling near the edge of the school roof. “I don’t think so.”

The briefest of grimaces flashed across Akako’s face, beautiful features twisted with frustration. Just as quickly, the ugly expression smoothed, and her shrill laugh filled the air. “You’re a difficult one to catch after all, Kaitou KID.”

“You’ve been listening to Hakuba too much. I’m not KID.” The denial came automatically by now.

The witch smirked. “If you say so. But we both know otherwise.”

Kaito eyeballed the roof for the best escape. Or even a witness, at this point. Akako wouldn’t play such obvious games with an audience. Stupid of him to get cornered up here alone with her. Hakuba sure chose a great time to give him a break from the stalking. “Why do you keep bothering me?” he lamented. Not that he didn’t appreciate the help that one time, but it didn’t make any sense in light of the rest of her actions. “I don’t get it. Do you want me dead or not?”

Akako paused at that, considering him with an unsettling hunger. “Neither. I want to know how you do it.”

Seriously? “A magician never reveals his secrets, you know,” he sang.

“This isn’t about your little  _tricks_.”

If it wasn’t about his magic, then… “Is this about KID breaking your creepy red lights again? You should really choose another colour, you know. Something more cheerful, like blue!”

As intended, that drew out her anger. Angry Akako was something he knew how to deal with. “You treat it with such jest, but that wasn’t one of your petty  _illusions_. Red is the colour of magic, Kuroba.” She flicked her fingers through her hair so that the sunlight caught it, highlighting the auburn in her tresses and catching the flecks of ruby in her sienna eyes. “It’s tied with blood and prophecy and love and flame.”

His thoughts flitted towards a certain gem, but his Poker Face didn’t so much as twitch. “That’s interesting, but nothing to do with me.”

“It has  _everything_  to do with you.” She stamped her foot, and Kaito had the weirdest sensation of lightning striking in the distance. “Out of all the men on this planet, my enchantments fail to work on you, and you alone.” She hissed the words like a spitting cobra. “I’m not bragging when I say that I’m the most powerful witch in Japan. So what, then, makes  _you_  so special, Kuroba Kaito?”

“I guess I’m just that awesome!” Kaito laughed, then leapt off the side of the roof and slid down the drainpipe.

 

………………

 

Akako’s words whirled in his head for days after.

He’d laughed it off… but he  _had_  broken her spell, hadn’t he?

And he still didn’t know how.

There was no denying his classmate’s sorcery was real. Not the parlour magic and misdirection and illusions Kaito so effortlessly wielded, but something much more sinister, something that could fill the Inspector with wild bloodlust, something that could make his heart stutter with agony from another building, something that could bind him in place without so much as a single invisible wire.

Not to mention Kaito spent his nights pursuing a gem that could grant immortality. Unsettling as it could be, he had come to accept that a supernatural form of magic might indeed exist.

But it wasn’t like  _he_  possessed that power, right?

It was that nagging thought which drove him back into the secret room. Because his father hadn’t managed to pass his entire repertoire of tricks on to his son before his murder, and though Kaito figured out most of them over the years, either through logic or by poring over his old notes, there remained a small handful which continued to elude him.

Could they have used  _true_  magic? And could, perhaps, such an ability be hereditary?

He didn’t know. But with his only other source on the supernatural being Akako, Kaito turned once again to his father’s legacy, searching for some clue. There had been countless notes and scrapbooks and journals tucked away in all corners of the secret room, and even after months of moonlighting as a phantom thief Kaito had yet to investigate all of them. So many were dated and useless, after all – blueprints for buildings since remodelled, profiles on police no longer with the force, notes on gadgets and tricks Kaito had already memorised or improved. There was simply too much to go through, and not enough hours in the day. Most of the vital research could be done online in a fraction of the time.

Still, if he were going to find any clues to a supernatural talent in the family, this was the only place. He sneezed as he unearthed yet another box of documents, sending a cloud of dust into the air. The problem with secret rooms was that there was no way to actually air them out.

“Oooo, interesting!” he declared to nobody. It was an old pile of newspapers, chronicling the many exploits of Kaitou KID from all corners of the globe. A later batch – a quick glance at the dates had these running almost up to…

He shoved that thought away before he could become lost in memories of screams and fire.

Leafing through the old records made for nostalgic reading. Any one of the articles could have been written today, complete with Inspector Nakamori’s condemnations and the rampant speculation over Kaitou KID’s goals and the inevitable return of the gem.

Until he came across one paper that didn’t fit the mould. French, from one of the international heists. He vaguely recalled marking the gem off his list of ones to check from his records, but given most of the news sources were overseas he’d never looked into this particular heist beyond the basics. It took several moments to translate, dusting off his neglected French.

‘ _FAMOUS GEM A FAKE ALL ALONG?_ ’

‘ _There has been a new twist in the latest case involving the infamous Kaitou KID…_ ’

Some of the details he couldn’t puzzle out without a dictionary, but the gist was clear enough. The gem returned had been a fake, accompanied by a note from KID himself declaring that fact and promising to steal the real one next time, with compliments to Interpol. Yet Interpol had reluctantly admitted that they never planned any such ruse, setting the owners into a tailspin as speculators wondered if this were a Kaitou KID trick or if the true jewel had been missing all along.

It made surprisingly little splash, all things told – though considering the other news stories in the paper, it became less surprising, with a rash of political scandals and several natural disasters severe enough to make international news all but burying the speculative footnote to a heist that had never made the front page in the first place. It wasn’t even the first time Kaitou KID had stolen – or discovered – a fake gem. Evidently why the story had never truly made it outside of local news.

What exactly happened? Did his father truly steal a fake and not realise until after the fact? Ten years ago the technology to create convincing fakes wasn’t quite as advanced as it was today, but then, the stolen gemstone hadn’t possessed any outwardly remarkable properties aside from its carat and size. Nothing as complicated as the hues of blue from boron in the Hope Diamond, or the sunshine yellow from traces of nitrogen in the Cora Sundrop.

Or… had he stolen the real gem after all? And replaced it with a fake himself? Kaitou KID’s reputation was solid enough that people were trained to assume he would return his thefts, hence why none had questioned whether the gem  _hadn’t_  been returned after all – at worst, KID’s detractors suggested it was another prank designed to stir up trouble, and that the real gem would turn up eventually.

And maybe it would have. It had been one of his father’s last targets before he died. He might not have had time to see that particular heist through to its conclusion.

But the gem wasn’t here in this room – Kaito would have noticed  _that_.

If the gem  _had_  been real, and his father chose to replace it with a fake… there remained the question of  _why_.

 

………………

 

The thought lingered, a burr stubbornly lodged in his thoughts, prickling at the edge of his consciousness.

He'd scoured online records, Interpol reports, fan conspiracy websites, anything he could lay his eyes on until his vision blurred with the strain. Nothing shed further light on what the truth of the matter was – the majority consensus was that the gem had been fake for at least some time and KID had simply exposed that fact.

KID had been particularly active in the period leading up to his death, so the heist, even for its minor notoriety, received little to no follow up coverage.

Yet Kaito struggled to leave it alone now that it had come to his attention. It didn't sit right. There was a pattern forming in his head, a dewed spiderweb, a revelation lingering in the corner of his eyes. It was the same nagging feeling he got whenever he was on the verge of figuring out a new trick.

Obsessing over it, in his practice, rarely revealed the prize, and there were gemstones out there yet demanding his attention. So Kaito ignored the itch in his thoughts, and distracted himself by planning another heist.

The full moon hung in a gloriously clear night sky, bathing the Nagoya City Science museum in silver light. A decent sized crowd had gathered in front of the building, kept out by a line of police. His target tonight was part of a temporary exhibition, an ancient piece of jewellery crafted in the 1600s, the centrepiece a large emerald with a cut that was exceptional for its time.

A low chance of being Pandora, but not zero. So the show would go on.

“Too slow, Inspector!” Kaitou KID crowed as he dashed up the fire stairs, white cape billowing behind him. It was an easy run to the roof, arming the traps behind him as he went. Hakuba had been taken care of at the start, a quick dose of sleeping gas that wouldn’t be wearing off for another five minutes at least.

When he reached the roof and found it empty though, it almost made him wish he’d left Hakuba in the game. None of his other detectives had made it this time – Nagoya too far flung on such short notice, perhaps - and enthusiastic as he was, Inspector Nakamori had become too predictable. Boring.

On reflex, Kaito held the gem up to the moon.

A flash of red…

His heart pounded, for just a moment.  _Had he been wrong, was_ this _Pandora_ -?

Then he looked closer. It wasn’t quite red. More… purple.

It was a reflection.

A reflection of his  _eyes_.

_‘KID’s eyes aren’t purple_.’

Not normally. But under the moonlight?

His breath stuttered in his chest, and only long honed reflexes stopped the gem from slipping through his fingers. A hundred separate dewdrops suddenly glistening at once, each one a clue, a pattern nearly formed...

“Hold it right there, KID!” Nakamori shouted as he burst onto the roof.

He jerked his attention back to the heist just in time to spin out of the way of yet another dogpile. “Sorry Inspector!” he sang, whirling around him and slipping the gem into Nakamori’s shirt pocket with nimble fingers. “Thanks for being such a great audience!”

 

………………

 

It had been something of a botched escape, ending with a rather ungraceful crash landing into a tree. That was what he got for getting distracted during a heist.

“Owowowowow!” Kaito hissed.

“I’m sorry, young master.” Jii picked another sliver of bark out of his arm with a pair of tweezers. “I’m almost done.”

It was just as well his littlest critic hadn’t been there after all. Kaito sent a mournful glance at his glider. The damage wasn’t catastrophic, but he wasn’t in the habit of taking gambles on his flying equipment. It would need some serious maintenance.

“I suppose we should be grateful you haven’t been injured more often,” Jii commented. “I’m not sure if this old heart of mine could take it. It was bad enough with Toichi, but I was absolutely beside myself when I saw you coming out of the fire.”

There was only one fire he could be referring to. Kaito frowned. “Wait… I was injured in the fire?”

His memory of that day was as vivid as it was jumbled. Horror at his father’s still body. The searing heat of flames. Magic and joy turned to ashes and tragedy.

Nowhere in it though, did he recall sustaining any damage  _himself_. Unless…

“I thought you were,” Jii admitted. “You were covered in blood, after all. Yet when I cleaned it off you were unharmed. I suppose now, knowing for certain that he was murdered… it must have been Toichi’s blood after all.” He shuddered. “That must have been so traumatising for you, young master….. Young master?”

Kaito didn’t respond, locked in a memory from which he couldn’t escape.

_The crack of a bullet. His father’s voice, panic and fury and fear all rolled into one. Then blood and pain and pain and pain and darkness…_

_And then a glimmer of red light._

The coroner had ruled his father’s death caused by fire alone, despite Snake’s boasts of shooting him. For so many years, his denial and frustration had been centered on accusations of his father making a mistake, of carelessness backstage. He’d been so vindicated by the confirmation of murder, he’d never stopped to truly consider the inconsistency. Because Snake seemed so proud, so certain to have shot  _someone_  that night, even when the evidence said otherwise.

It was the final dewdrop on a complex spiderweb of thought that had been woven over months, revealed, complete, in a single flash of light.

Unexplained immunity to Akako’s magic. Blue eyes that turned purple in the moonlight. A forgotten, missing gem.

The sickening realisation of what had really happened to Pandora.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The canon doesn't seem to have touched on it yet, but the Hope Diamond is totally the exact profile of Pandora. Cursed gem that shines red under UV light? Well, for the purposes of this fic it's not Pandora, just saying.

 

“ _Hattori_ ,” Hakuba Sagaru grumbled, lip curling on the word. “Fat lot of use you were tonight.”

“Shut up, ya damn Brit,” Hattori grouched, clomping into the now-deserted museum foyer in a pair of oversized clown shoes and a rainbow tutu. He shucked both off, holding the tutu at arm’s length with a sort of tired distaste. “ _You_  spent half the heist unconscious.”

Hardly his own fault – it had been Nakamori’s wild flailing that had knocked his gas mask loose from his face. The inspector’s swearing was still faintly audible from the interior.

There was little point in arguing the point with the Osakan tonight, however. Hakuba was far too preoccupied with other thoughts. “Where’s Edogawa?”

“I was just talking to him.” Hattori held up his radio. “KID got away again, so he’s on his way back here. Why?”

“Hm. Just a thought I wanted his perspective on.” Kuroba had been acting strange lately, and the last few heists.... “He’s an excellent sounding board on the subject of KID.”

“Yeah, I guess he is.”

Hakuba flipped open his pocketwatch, out of habit more than anything. Precisely nine minutes and thirty two seconds from KID’s first appearance to his escape. On the short side, but still comfortably within the average. He caressed the glass face for a moment, before thumbing it shut and sliding it into the pocket of his brown overcoat once more.

“I’m surprised, ya know.” Hattori commented into the silence, in a way that was  _so_  casual it was decidedly not. “That ya take Conan so seriously. Most guys on the force just write him off as a precocious little kid. Hell, it took me a while…” He cut himself off.

It was an odd topic for Hattori to be so cagey about. “I suppose it’s because I was the same once,” Hakuba admitted. “As a child prodigy myself, it was frustrating to be ignored because of my age, and my successes written off as cheating or coincidence.” Or worst of all, nepotism. It was only recently that trend began to change. “Edogawa has proven himself. If I were to treat him as anything less than a peer it would be both hypocritical and illogical.”

“Huh.” Hattori scratched the back of his neck, and let the subject drop. Curious. Edogawa and Hattori seemed as thick as thieves, as distasteful as the cliché was, but perhaps there existed some hidden friction there. Resentment from Hattori, that a child frequently out-deducted him?

Hakuba could imagine that easily – it was only his personal experiences, and admiration of Edogawa’s prodigy, that kept his jealousy in check and in perspective – and even then, he had to admit his performance remained far from perfect there. Still, allies were more important than egos.

_Worthwhile_  allies, that was. He caught Hattori watching him, and scowled.

Edogawa saved him from further conversation by choosing that moment to tromp miserably back into the museum foyer, covered head to toe in rainbow silly string.

“My sympathies,” Hakuba offered at the sight.

The child shrugged, making a face as he gingerly picked a strand off his oversized glasses. Hakuba offered him a handkerchief to clean them. “It’s rather tame for KID, really. It could have been much worse.”

“You think so as well then?” Hakuba nodded to himself. “Good, it wasn’t just my imagination then.”

“Huh? Whaddya talking about, Hakuba?” Hattori demanded.

Hakuba ignored the brash demand, taking the time to formulate his opening carefully. This wasn’t an interrogation - he wanted a second opinion, and that meant avoiding leading questions. “Has anything struck you odd about the last three heists?”

There was a shrewd glint in Edogawa’s eyes. “Do you mean the lack of originality, or the timing?”

So he wasn’t paranoid. “Both. KID tends to hold heists of opportunity. Which means we’ve sometimes gone nearly three months without a heist, and other times have had two in one week.”

“Yet these have been evenly spaced, roughly two and a half weeks apart, and all targets which have been available for some time,” Edogawa agreed.

“That, in addition to a lack of new tricks…” It was still incredibly effective - KID’s repertoire was vast and varied enough that even having been exposed to those traps and strategies previously the Task Force often still failed to react appropriately – but it wasn’t  _KID_. Hakuba had long felt a sort of reluctant admiration for his seemingly endless well of creativity.

Hattori frowned at that. “The past few heists  _have_  felt a little routine. I ain’t been here for as many of ‘em as the two of you, but I felt like he was kinda going through the motions tonight. Of course, he still gave us the slip, so…”

“We expected more, and when there wasn’t, we were caught off guard all the same,” Edogawa supplied, crossing his arms and looking pensive, sounding many years more mature than his apparent seven. “I wonder…”

“What?” Hakuba prodded.

“I wonder if he found it,” he mused. “Whatever he was looking for. And if now he doesn’t know what to do next.”

Hakuba blinked. That seemed atypical of KID, but it might explain Kuroba’s recent preoccupation and the strangely routine nature of his most recent heists. “You think he’s in a holding pattern. But why?” And what did he find?

“Why would you go into a holding pattern?”

Hattori answered first. “Because you don’t want anyone to know that you found it.”

It made sense, except… “That’s the complete anti-thesis of KID, though.” KID would not only proclaim his successes to the world, but he would do so with sky writing and fireworks and twenty-storey tall banners.

“It is,” Edogawa agreed. “And isn’t that interesting?”

 

…………………

 

Hakuba had combed back through the case history of the most recent heists, searching for the one which might have been the turning point. All of the gems had been returned, however. Nothing stood out. He even urged a few of the owners to get their wares tested, to be sure none were particularly good fakes.

Nothing.

Subtle needling of Kuroba at school delivered even less. There was something undeniably  _off_  about the magician, though. He was such a frustratingly good actor that Hakuba couldn’t pin it to any one thing, but it felt as though a wall had been constructed between his classmate and the rest of the world. He still laughed, and pulled tricks, and flicked up girl’s skirts, but there was something in a lingering glance, a strange wistfulness that was so fleeting sometimes Hakuba wondered if it were just his imagination, except Aoko kept asking Kuroba if anything was wrong, and Akako’s gaze dwelled on the magician’s back far longer than usual.

Another heist came and went. All three detectives attended. KID got away again.

Hakuba’s unease deepened.

Then finally, less than a fortnight later, Inspector Megure received a heist note.

Hattori and Edogawa were at the station when the news came through – apparently the pair had accompanied Mouri Kogoro on another case which had just wrapped up.

“Why Inspector Megure, though?” Edogawa wondered, voice pitched with what sounded like forced childlike wonder. “Normally KID sends the notice to Nakamori, right?”

“Or in the paper, or to one of us, or to the gem’s owners,” Hattori said, pointing out the obvious  _as usual_.

“More importantly, what does the note say?” Hakuba asked impatiently, hand out for the note. Edogawa absently handed it over, brow furrowed in thought. The expression looked far too old for his age.

_‘I shall take the fine lady Elpis for a dance_

_To celebrate the day Aphrodite blessed Pandora_

_And make the Queen Nyx jealous_

_Enjoy the show – I’ll wear my finest drapes_

_-KID’_

It was signed with his customary doodle, and printed on fancier card than normal, its edges rimmed with gold, rather like a wedding invitation. Hakuba flipped it over in his hands, checking for any cheeky remarks on the other side, but the back was simply patterned like a playing card.

“That sounds like a bucket of Greek mythology references to me,” Hattori said. “Don’t suppose the police station has a guide to the Pantheon handy?”

“Unnecessary,” Hakuba said. “I’m quite versed with both Homer’s and Hesiod’s literature. I thought it was considered standard education, but then, that would require you to pick up a  _book_.” The dig might have been unprofessional, but he couldn’t resist it.

“Hey, I read plenty! Ancient poetry just ain’t my thing, seems like it’s only something  _stuck up snobs_  enjoy, ya know?” Hattori’s retort was accompanied by a smile that was all teeth.

A low growl began to form in Hakuba’s throat, but before he could spit out another retort, Edogawa said, “Elpis was the spirit of hope in Hesiod’s mythology. In the myth of Pandora’s box, it was said that all the evils of the world escaped, leaving only Elpis inside before Pandora replaced the lid.”

It shouldn’t have surprised Hakuba that Edogawa was that well-read, but it continued to catch him off guard none the less, and successfully distracted him from the growing conflict with Hattori. “That’s correct. I’m assuming it’s a reference to his target?”

“And Nyx?” Hattori asked.

“The Goddess of Night. Alluding to the time of day, perhaps?” Hakuba worried his lip between his teeth. “Although I would consider that a given. KID hardly ever does daytime heists.” It made getaways that much harder, after all. “The line about drapes could also be a clue. A formal event, perhaps? A drape jacket is an old-fashioned piece of western formal wear.”

“Isn’t it those kinds of loose jackets with the folded thing at the front?” Hattori argued. “I think Kazuha said something about it once. A fashion show?”

Hakuba snapped his fingers. “Or to get away from clothing, perhaps a museum of antique paintings. Drapes are used to block out any natural light that will fade or damage the artwork.”

“So we’re after any one of those things, also hosting a jewel.”

Edogawa had in the meantime hopped on the nearest computer, and now turned the screen to show them. “I’ve found our exhibit.”

The Hope Diamond.

“…This has got to be the biggest KID heist yet,” Hakuba breathed.

 

…………………

 

The trio of junior detectives had been quick to inform Megure – who had already called in Nakamori, being the head of KID Taskforce – of their discovery. They had little opportunity to get further with Nakamori’s bellowing about jurisdiction – Megure had been perturbed at his obvious inclusion and thus felt the need to be involved, but it was in every way Nakamori’s playground.

Shinichi had a lot of faith in Inspector Megure though, and the man wasn’t one for politics. Likely he would show up as support while leaving the reins in Nakamori’s hands. Assuming, of course, that no more pressing incidents took up Megure’s time. KID’s crimes, no matter how numerous, rarely warranted the attention of the homicide department.

So with a quiet tug on Hattori’s sleeve, they’d retreated to finish deciphering the rest of the note. Nakamori was prone to falling for KID’s red herrings, after all. And frankly, Shinichi preferred puzzling out the rest of the note  _without_  having to overdo his play-acting as ‘child-prodigy’ Edogawa Conan in front of the adults. Being seventeen-going-on-seven  _really sucked_  sometimes.

Maybe it was a bit risky still, around Hakuba, but the blond detective acted aggressively older than his own age, so apparently had painted ‘Conan’ with the same brush. So long as Hattori didn’t make any mistakes and use his real name, Shinichi felt his secret was safe enough there.

“I dunno,” Hattori said after they’d resettled, “Will they even still exhibit once the heist gets published?  _Is_  the heist getting published?”

“I doubt the police intend to, but it never seems to make a difference. There’s always a crowd regardless,” Hakuba sniffed. Shinichi was inclined to agree. The thief had become too much a celebrity – all it took was a few officers talking about work with their partners or families, and the rumour would spread from there like wildfire. And that was the times when the gem’s owners didn’t go to the press  _themselves_  to generate more interest in their exhibits.

“We should assume they’ll go ahead with it anyway. Between KID’s reputation for returning the gem, and the knowledge that he’ll likely find a way to get it  _anyway_ , I don’t think there’s been a single heist ever cancelled,” Shinichi advised. There was probably a bit of pride involved too, in ‘not giving in to criminals’.

“Suppose you’re right. What about the time and date, then? We’ve already got the target and the place,” Hattori barrelled ahead. He picked up the card and squinted at it. “So Nyx is night, yeah? Kinda vague.”

“ _Queen_  Nyx,” Hakuba corrected, the pursed his lips. “Although I don’t recall anything about her being a ‘Queen’. She was a primordial deity, not exactly part of the court of Olympus.”

It wasn’t like KID to make that sort of oversight. “The Queen must be the clue then,” Shinichi concluded.

“Queen, queen…” Hattori flicked KID’s heist card lazily through his fingers, then suddenly froze, staring at it. “Hey, cards... could it be like a deck? This is what this kind of looks like, right?”

“Midnight,” Shinichi declared. “If we assume the Jack is eleven, and the King thirteen…” It was later than he expected. Good for the police if true though – the crowd would be much smaller that late, and fewer children underfoot. ‘Conan’ would have to make an excuse to stay at Professor Agasa’s house that night if he wanted to attend – as lenient as Ran could be sometimes, he didn’t like his chances of attending a midnight heist under her eye.

Something about that struck him as odd though. It seemed… atypical of KID. He loved crowds.

“That only leaves the day then,” Hattori said. “Aphrodite?”

Hakuba frowned. “It’s all Greek references. In ancient Greek, Aphrodite was named for Friday. Do the dates correspond?”

Shinichi checked the exhibit. It was only for a week, Thursday to Thursday.

It all fit. There wasn’t much room for interpretation. But…

“It bothers me,” Shinichi muttered. “The line about the drapes at the end.”

“I see what you mean,” Hakuba agreed. “It’s unnecessary, and it’s not like Kaitou KID to include redundant information in his notes.”

Hattori frowned. “Yeah, Elpis should be more than enough. Maybe we got it wrong? Or it’s a red herring?”

“I doubt it. The Hope Diamond in Japan at the time specified in the note?” Shinichi shook his head. “In many ways, it would be stranger for KID to ignore it. The riddle is practically a courtesy at this point.”

“Since when has KID ever cared about being predictable?” Hattori grumbled.

“If we’re right and Kaito KID  _is_  searching for something, and this gem fits the profile, he won’t miss the opportunity. It hardly ever leaves the Smithsonian,” Hakuba countered. “You’re an idiot if you believe otherwise.”

“Hey, who are you callin’-”

“Curtains,” Shinichi blurted.

The other two detectives paused in their squabbling. “Huh?”

“Drapes. In most parts of the world, they’re usually simply called curtains.”

Hakuba stared at him, befuddled. “Curtains. As in the end of a performance?”

“But for  _who_?”

“And that brings us to the next question – why send the notice to Inspector Megure instead of Nakamori?” Shinichi asked.

An uneasy silence fell over the three detectives.

Hakuba, in the end, was the first to break it. “I… call it detective’s intuition, but I have a bad feeling about this heist.”

Hattori, for once, didn’t poke fun. “They say the Hope Diamond is cursed, you know. Maybe that’s why.”

“It’s the riddle,” Shinichi said. “It’s heavy-handed, for KID. Almost too easy. Are we sure it’s not a copy-cat taking advantage?” KID  _loved_  peppering his riddles with ambiguity and double meanings, and his choice of theme this time had given him ample opportunity.

“All those Greek references, I half expected to be debating between the various meanings of Gamma or Lambda,” Hakuba agreed. “I almost feel as though he’s underestimating us.”

“Or the riddle isn’t for us,” Hattori muttered.

Shinichi blinked.

That was… that was a thought.

“We’ve overlooked something,” he said.

“What’s that?” Hattori asked.

“KID’s methodology.” Shinichi began to pace the small room, tense with concentration. “Why does he go to such effort to publicise his heists?”

“There’s dozens of reasons,” Hakuba scoffed. “He obviously likes an audience, just for starters.”

“But KID’s intelligent, we all know that. His riddles alone tell us this, but his long string of successes against what should be ridiculous odds makes it even clearer. The three of us have had some success against him, but we haven’t caught him yet.” And he’d figured out Shinichi’s secret too, with even less information than Hattori had. “Why would someone that smart take such a risk?

Hattori scratched his head. “Adrenaline junkie?”

“Naturally. He’s an exhibitionist and a narcissist and gets a thrill out of taunting the police publicly and still getting away with it.” The very recollection soured Hakuba’s expression like a lemon.

“And there’s plenty of evidence to assume that this is at least partially the case,” Shinichi agreed patiently. “But work with me here… If we remove that motive, what are we left with?”

“The crowds do make it easier for him to get close to his marks,” grumbled Hakuba.

“But by publicising his heists in advance, it also increases the security around them and brings the police onto the scene. There’s also the risk that the gem owners will no longer exhibit. Most do because of KID’s reputation for returning his heists, and the extra revenue the publicity brings, but if Kaitou KID is in it for more than the spectacle… why risk his objective disappearing? Is the benefit of a crowd really worth it?”

“He can use the security or any of the staff anyway,” Hattori pointed out. “The crowd doesn’t add that much. He’s gotta be making ‘em public for some other reason. Ya know, if we’re supposing.”

Hakuba frowned. “The police, then? For some reason other than just taunting them?”

“But what?” Shinichi pressed. “What could be worth that extra risk?”

“Someone else we haven’t thought of then. Someone else who will only find out about it if it’s advertised,” Hattori suggested.

Shinichi nodded. “Right. He makes the heists public to make sure a third party knows that he’s pulling the heist. And to simultaneously ensure that the police will be there.”

“…He wants the police to find the third party,” Hakuba concluded in stunned realisation.

This changed things. Enormously.

It was easy to see Kaito KID as an adversary. He was an excellent rival, and talented at finding precisely the right buttons to press to incite a person’s ire, and regularly humiliated the police. The only true victims of his crimes were, perhaps, prides and egos, but Shinichi had still burned to catch him. Not for the technicalities of the law, but for the blatant disregard he had for the police’s time. Time that could be spent chasing  _true_  criminals who would steal and not give back or threaten people’s safety and do more than simply embarrass them.

But if this had been KID playing a complex game of interference with  _real_  criminals all along…

Criminals dangerous and slippery enough that they couldn’t be brought to justice any other way…

Shinichi paused, and felt his world shift dangerously.

That sounded an awful lot like another group of people he’d been unlucky enough to deal with.

He swallowed, and stared down at his hands. Hands far too small for his supposed years.

It couldn’t be… could it?

 


	3. Chapter 3

 

It was a shame, really, Kaito mused as he toyed with his binoculars, that there wasn’t a larger crowd. Several dozen of his biggest fans, a few dozen more which were likely curious locals… the risk of being stranded far from home once the trains stopped running for the night kept all but the most enthusiastic from this particular heist.

He’d planned it that way, of course. This was a very important heist, and the more… controlled he could keep it, the better. Bad enough that all three of his detectives had shown.

His face stretched into his trademark grin as his gaze fell on that familiar blond head of hair, half-covered with that obnoxious brown detective cap. Hakuba was always going to be there hell or high water – Kaito had planned for that. He’d been somewhat hoping that the late hour would be deterrent enough for his littlest critic though, which would have likely counted the lumbering Osakan out as well – though truth be told, he wasn’t exactly disappointed.

This was going to be his last heist, after all. It would have been a little sad if they missed it.

“I hope you weren’t too disappointed with my note, tantei-kun,” he said to the wind. The breeze chilled his face, the only skin left exposed in his trademark white tuxedo and top hat. He caressed the lapels fondly, though it was as much to quell the slight tremors in his hands as it was from nostalgia. Tonight he was wearing one of the very originals, altered only to fit him a little better. “But my guests aren’t quite as good at riddles as you are.”

The building this time was several stories higher – the lower floors of the museum connected, but the higher floors housing the associated university branched off into two squat towers of five stories each, the top floors connected by a walkway – a popular enough design in feng shui principles, a sort of dragon gate. As he scanned the pair of rooftops through his binoculars, he finally found what he was looking for. A savage smile slashed across his face, all teeth and no joy.

A heist note like that had been all but an engraved invitation. And luckily, Snake remained cocky enough to take it.

The clock struck midnight.

“Showtime,” Kaitou KID whispered, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

 

………………

 

“Ladies and Gentlemen! How lovely of you to come tonight!” KID gestured and bowed with a flourish, confetti falling from the ceiling to accent his arrival, seemingly floating a metre above the lovingly displayed necklace and its coveted centrepiece.

“KID!” Nakamori shouted. “You’re not getting anywhere  _near_  that gem! He’s standing on a wire! Get him!”

Nets shout out, four of them – covering every linear path he might have taken to evade.

KID cartwheeled backwards, and then hopped several metres to the side. The task force stared, open mouthed, as their nets caught nothing and the Phantom Thief treated the open air with the casualness of a glass floor.

“Funny you should say that, Inspector,” KID sang, not missing a beat in the wake of their befuddlement. With a flourish, he snapped his fingers, and the room was flooded with spotlights. In that momentary flash, the necklace disappeared from the case, and suddenly sat glinting in the thief’s white gloved hands.

Nakamori glanced at the case, then at the necklace in KID’s possession. “How- don’t let him get away!” he bellowed, as the thief took a short bow and ran above the heads of the crowd, dashing to the next room.

The Hope Diamond remained safe in their hands, of course – its disappearance a trick of mirrors that would fail the instant someone turned off the spotlights he’d set up. Anyone with a decent amount of expertise would be able to tell that the necklace he was holding was a fake, but then, Kaitou KID didn’t intend to let anyone get a very good look at it. His reputation did all the work for him – dangle it from his fingers for an instant, whisk it into his cape, and they all assumed he had stolen the real thing and didn’t even wonder if it was just a decoy.

The ruse wouldn’t last long, but it got the right people chasing him, and the heist was on.

Normally he would have used the confusion to double back and steal the real gem once their forces thinned out, but tonight held different plans. He tore a mad path through the building, ducking into one shadow and appearing in another, a flash of white cape disappearing around a corner, a dozen red herrings and booby traps set off along the way. KID’s laugh echoed through the halls, piped through speakers and thrown with ventriloquism, causing chaos in his pursuers and delight in his few present fans.

When he finally broke onto the roof of the connecting building he was just shy of breathless, pleasantly flushed from the effort. It hadn’t been near as flashy or theatrical as some of his escapes, but he’d put in the effort for a good show and more, to get to this roof while still luring the police to its neighbour.

He slowed his pace, a casual, confident stride along the moonlit rooftop. Twirling the necklace jauntily in his fingers, careless of its ludicrous worth.

He very carefully did not raise it to look at it in the light of the moon.

There was the click of metal behind him – the shift of cloth. KID stilled, though his attention was fixated more on the shadows spilling onto the roof opposite. The Task Force. But more concerning were the three silhouettes approaching from the stairwell behind.

His detectives were a little too quick for their own good. KID needed witnesses, but if they tried to interfere…

Well, he wouldn’t let them. Snake suffered terrible tunnel vision anyway.

“I should have guessed you might be here,” KID called, partly to get his detectives to pause before they rushed out onto the roof like fools, and to catch Snake’s attention before they did.

“Hand over the gem, and maybe I’ll let you live,” Snake replied, rising from his crouch on the stairwell’s awning. The barrel of his shotgun glinted in the moonlight. KID’s pulse raced, feeling as though his heart might beat its way out of his skin. Adrenaline sang in his veins, lending everything an air of hyper-reality.

KID barked out a laugh, his following grin all sharp edges. “ _Snake_. It’s been a while. I might’ve started to think you were ignoring me.”

“No tricks, KID,” he warned. In the corner of his eyes, Kaito saw the detectives creeping closer – they’d noticed the gunman and were being cautious. On the opposite roof, he saw one of the officers point their way.

It was enough. It would have to be enough.

“No tricks,” KID lied. He flashed the gem – just a glimpse of it. “I finally found it Snake. And I’m going to destroy it, and you’ll have  _noth-”_

The bullet punched into his chest.

His vision scrambled, darkened, blooming white and red before righting itself. It wasn’t even pain – his body didn’t even have the chance to register it – just pressure, sharp and impossible, the wind knocked out of him and his nerves shutting down and-

Kaitou KID stumbled, and the fake necklace slipped from his fingers and fell with a delicate jangle to the ground.

” _KID!”_ A chorus of voices shouted, instinct and blurry, as though echoing down a hallway. KID blinked, struggling to focus, searching for the silhouette of black, for Snake’s sneering face. Stumbling backwards, until he hit the edge of an air conditioning unit, anchoring his weight against it.

Something was wrong.

Snake darted forward, picking up the necklace, then moments later tossing it back to the ground in disgust. “You damn thief! It’s a  _fake_! Where’s the real one?”

His trap, why wasn’t his trap going off? It was supposed to go off when-

KID gasped, blood staining his lips. How was he still  _breathing_? “You’re supposed to shoot straight for the heart, Snake,” he rasped. “Losing your touch?”

“I SHOT YOU IN THE HEART, YOU FREAK!” Snake shouted back. “What trick are you pulling this time? How many times do I have to kill you before-” Snake cut himself off, as though suddenly realising something. “Wait. You  _did_  find it. You  _used_  it.”

His detectives were spilling onto the roof now. Dangerous. Kaito struggled to form words, to get the breath for a warning. It wasn’t supposed to take this long to…

A volley of gunfire drove the detectives to cover. The gunshots echoed in his ears like drumbeats. Kaito gripped the air conditioning unit, somehow still upright, fumbling fingers searching for his card gun. They didn’t want to work. “You watch out, KID,” Snake sneered. “We’ll get Pandora from you, one way or another.” Then he disappeared over the edge of the roof. A rappel, some distant part of him noted. Support team, getaway vehicle. He’d prepared for it, but he wasn’t supposed to – the traps were supposed to -

His vision was blurred – a roar filled his ears, the echo of shouts from the police and detectives. Tantei-kun, Tantei-san, both running towards him now Snake was gone, eyes wide.

He couldn’t –  _he had to-_

Instinct, muscle memory, some deep, primal part of his brain took over enough to lurch to the edge of the building. With a blood-stained smile, he fell backwards off the edge.

 


	4. Chapter 4

 

Hakuba’s hands were shaking. He stared at them, willing them to still. It didn’t help.

The afterimage of the KID’s glider burned in his mind. His ears still rang from the gunshots – everything sounded muffled.

“Put an APB out on the hospitals!” Nakamori was yelling over the radio. “Requesting backup for a pursuit, gunman on the loose-”

“Division One providing backup,” Megure confirmed over his own radio, “The suspect is armed and dangerous, dressed in black, the getaway vehicle details are-”

Irrelevant. It had been a clean getaway. As soon as KID had left the roof, a series of nets and expanding foam traps had sprung from all sides of the building, at the same moment the door to the stairs had slammed shut. He, Hattori, and Edogawa were stuck on the rooftop, waiting for Division Two to get through KID’s booby-trapped door.

Helpless.

Edogawa was poking around at the spring release mechanisms that had been hidden along the edge of the roof. The coverage had been impressive, even for KID. The boy looked lost. “This trap it’s…”

Hattori jogged over to him – Hakuba listed after them, body moving on automatic. “What did you find?”

He stared up at them with wide eyes. “I think it was a deadman’s switch.”

Hakuba’s hands clenched. “Then when it went off-”

“No, not that,” Edogawa hurried to say. “I mean, I don’t know, but once the transmitter went out of range it would have the same effect-”

“But you mean to say, KID  _knew…_ ” Hattori couldn’t seem to bring himself to finish the thought.

Hakuba’s teeth clenched until his jaw began to ache. That  _moron_ -

“What the  _heck_  just happened here?” Hattori asked. “What do we  _do_?”

“We need to talk to him,” Edogawa said. He was pale, but for a child seemed to be holding it together better than Hakuba at that point. It wasn’t the boy’s first time witnessing a murder, some distant part of him registered. “Hattori, that guy was-” he said in a whisper, then caught sight of Hakuba and fell silent.

Division Two finally broke through the door – Inspector Megure was close behind. His face went stern – Hakuba flinched when he followed his gaze, and caught the spatter of red on the concrete – the smeared hand prints on the air conditioning unit, the drops leading to the building’s edge.

Hakuba was going to be sick.

All three detectives were corralled off the roof and down to the station in short order after that. Their statements were taken while Division One and Division Two both bustled in their respective tasks – Megure in pursuit of the gunman, Nakamori in pursuit of KID. A strange hush fell over Division Two as they phoned the various hospitals and set up patrols along the path KID’s glider had taken. There was an odd undercurrent of fear and worry that deepened with every minute that went past without word of the moonlight magician’s fate.

Nobody was supposed to get hurt at KID heists. Not even KID.

It must have been nearly 2am, with the three detectives sitting in the station – cleared to leave but reluctant to go until they heard news, and everyone else too preoccupied to shoo them on their way – when Hattori said, “It wasn’t faked, was it? Squibs, maybe? Cornstarch and food dye?”

Hakuba closed his eyes. “They already tested the samples. It’s blood.”

“He’s alive,” Edogawa said. “He’s got to be. He managed to leave the roof. Someone would have found him by now if…”

The kid looked worried – the most worried Hakuba had ever seen him. This was no place for a child, regardless of prodigy. “Shouldn’t you be at home? Won’t someone be looking for you?” There was that girl, Mouri Ran, right? Normally the boy was brought home by her, he thought. He didn’t know the particulars of his living situation but he seemed to be staying with that private eye, Mouri Kogoro.

The kid shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “I got permission to stay over with Hattori-niisan, so I could attend the heist.”

Hakuba sent the Osakan a baleful glare. “And you haven’t taken him home yet? Edogawa might have earned it but he’s still-”

“He made me take a nap before we came out,” Edogawa interrupted. “And it’s not a school day! I don’t want to go, not until I know what happened.”

The kid was stubborn. Hakuba could understand. He couldn’t fathom the idea of sleeping either, not before he knew.

If Kuroba died, like  _that_ , how would…

Sitting in the police station was going to drive him mad. He stood up. “I’m going to his house,” he said. “If he didn’t- He’ll have to go there eventually.”

“Wait, his  _house_? You  _know_  who Kaitou KID is?” Hattori accused, standing to join him.

“I  _suspect_ ,” Hakuba corrected, then scowled. “No, I  _know_. It  _can’t_  be anyone else.”

“Then why the hell haven’t you gone to the police with your  _suspicions_? They’ve been running around looking for even a  _hint_  of his identity for  _years_!”

“You think I haven’t  _tried_? It’s all entirely circumstantial evidence!” Hakuba snapped. His hands were fists of frustration. “It would never hold up in court. He has rock-solid alibis for  _multiple_  heists – I still can’t figure out how he might have accomplished  _that_. And he’s such an  _annoyingly_  good actor that sometimes even  _I_  doubt it.”

Hattori stepped back. “Ah shucks, if he’s got alibis… you sure it’s just not someone covering for him?”

“One alibi is from one of Kaitou KID’s most fervent detractors, Inspector Nakamori’s daughter,” Hakuba growled. “…One of the others is me.”

Hattori blinked at that. “Are you  _sure_ …?”

“I don’t know how he did it, but he found a way.” Hakuba shook his head, irritated. “Does it  _matter_ , right now? He was- he was-”

The words shouldn’t have been so hard to say. All of them had seen shootings before, had seen violence on that scale.

It was  _KID_  though. He’d been untouchable. But suddenly the phantom had been rendered terrifyingly mortal.

He deserved a lot of things. Jail, perhaps. Unmasking. Some hefty fines to compensate for the waste of police resources and the stress he caused Interpol.

He didn’t deserve to die.

“I’m going,” Hakuba declared. “Sitting here won’t accomplish anything. If the police were going to find him, they would have by now.” Unless Kuroba was hiding in some random attic, bleeding out-

“We’re coming with you,” Edogawa said, leaping to his feet.

Hakuba eyed them. He didn’t want to, really, but he couldn’t explain why. KID’s identity had been  _his_ deduction, and he was strangely reluctant to share it under these circumstances. But the other two detectives had been  _there_ , they deserved to know, just as much as he did. In their shoes, there was no way Hakuba would have stayed behind.

“We won’t tell, if it is him,” Hattori said, as though reading his thoughts. “It wouldn’t be right. Not when he needs help. Murder’s more important than gems.” Edogawa nodded seriously next to him.

Hakuba sighed. “Come along, then.”

 

………………

 

Kaito stared into the mirror in the moonlit bathroom, hand dragging across his chest in disbelief.

The skin was smooth. Not even a scar.

His gaze flit nervously to the white suit, stained vivid red, discarded on the bathroom floor. A tear in the front and a matching one in the back. Unmistakeable.

He’d  _felt_ it. It had been impossible pressure, sharper than even Akako’s curse, or tantei-kun’s canon fire soccer balls. Snake had shot true.

Yet Kaito was still alive, and didn’t even have the wound to show for it anymore.

He should have foreseen it. He’d been shot before, after all – saved in the past once by the very gem he’d stolen, but the other times?

How many times had he been winged by a bullet and laughed it off later? His hand flit to his right eye. There had been that heist, once, with the sniper. When he’d woken up in the river without his monocle, and nothing but a scratch to show for it.

His breath grew shallow and fast, on the edge of panic.

…He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t destroy Pandora.

It had taken all of his courage, all of his despair and determination and vindictiveness - every emotion he could rally to its cause to stand still and let Snake shoot him. To give the police eye-witnesses, a victim, everything needed to bring Snake to justice and destroy Pandora in one fell swoop.

He’d failed on every account. And now he was worse off than before.

Snake – stupid, moronic, ignorant, malicious Snake, who couldn’t tell him from Toichi – had somehow, miraculously, realised that he had Pandora. That he  _was_ Pandora. That the whole reason he apparently hadn’t died nine years ago was because he’d found and used the gem.

The gunman had managed to be both completely wrong and absolutely correct.

And now the Organisation would be coming for him in an entirely different way.

“This is… quite the pinch,” he murmured in the darkness.

Automatically, he began washing away the evidence, ignoring the phantom ache in his chest. He still felt dizzy – blood loss? – and could barely remember how he’d managed to drag himself home without being tracked. Muscle memory, perhaps. Habits built up from heist after heist.

It was just as well he’d not made any grand confessions before what was supposed to be his final heist. It had felt cowardly at the time, leaving nothing more than a series of sealed letters under his pillow, full of explanations and apologies to the handful of people that mattered. That principle still drove him, that echo of his father’s words – ‘You must never spoil your tricks ahead of time.’

So he hadn’t allowed himself any tells before his final act – nothing more than a hand lingering on Aoko’s shoulder a second longer than normal, an extra few minutes on the phone with his mother, a particularly good prank on Hakuba. He’d reasoned that he simply didn’t want to risk it, on the wild off-chance that Snake  _didn’t_  take the incredibly obvious bait, or any of the hundred other things that might have gone wrong.

Maybe, though, he’d already suspected, deep down.

How did it even work? Wasn’t the legend that Pandora would shed tears that granted immortality only under the light of a particular passing comet? The legend could be wrong, of course. Kaito couldn’t quite imagine how a gem might  _cry_.

A human could cry, though.

Pandora had only been  _trapped_  inside a gemstone, after all. Maybe it needed a vessel. Whatever form that vessel took…

He shook his head. He didn’t want to think about it. He  _didn’t_.

His thoughts were interrupted by a barrage of knocks hammering on his front door. “Kuroba! Open up! I know you’re in there!”

Hakuba?

Kaitou startled back to awareness, fumbling for a t-shirt and clean, non-blood stained pants. He shucked off his shoes, and cast a wild eye at the mirror for any remaining blood or signs of KID.

Good enough.

He wasn’t put together enough for this, not right now, but the longer he left Hakuba hollering on his doorstep the more attention it might bring from the wrong people – like  _Aoko_ , next door, who would wake up and wonder what the fuss was about. It was still pitch black out.

He stumbled down the stairs, gripping the railing, as the thudding was joined by the insistent peal of the doorbell. Kaito lurched to the door and wrenched it open. “What the  _hell_ , Hakuba, do you know what  _time_  it is?”

Only it wasn’t just Hakuba, but Hattori Heiji and Edogawa Conan on his doorstep too.

“Ku-kudo?” Hattori stuttered, then glanced at the kid standing next to him in disbelief.

“Who are you?” he asked crossly, because he wasn’t going to drop the charade without at least creating  _some_  plausible deniability. “And why is there a  _kid_  here? Hakuba, this better be good, I was  _asleep,_ there are  _phones_  you know-”

Hakuba didn’t answer, just reached forward, grasped the bottom of his t-shirt and yanked it up.

Kaito stumbled back half a step from the force of the motion, even as Hakuba froze. The detective pressed his palm against the smooth skin of his chest. Kaito barely contained the reflexive flinch – he’d been  _shot_  there mere hours ago.

Running on automatic, he fluttered his eyelashes and said, “Oh my, Hakuba, I didn’t realise you felt that way! But you know, there are  _children_  present…”

“It can’t- You-  _How_?” Hakuba pinched at the skin – checking for latex, for hidden bandages, then snatched back his hand as though scalded, staring at him with a haunted gaze.

Kaito had, somewhat accidentally, finally proven to Hakuba that he really wasn’t KID. It was like watching an entire city of stone crumble to dust behind the detective’s eyes.

“Hey, are you okay?” Kaito asked. “What’s the big idea anyway? I don’t think you actually came here to grope me in the middle of the night, right?” He turned to Hattori. “And who the heck is Kudo?”

“Ah, sorry, you just, you know, in the dark you’re a dead ringer for a friend of mine.” Hattori rubbed the back of his neck and darted a nervous glance at the boy standing by his side. The smallest of his three detectives had yet to say a word, simply staring at him fiercely, and it was beginning to make Kaito anxious.

He might have just proven to Hattori and Hakuba that he wasn’t KID, but Edogawa Conan  _knew_  he could disguise as Shinichi Kudo without makeup. And for some reason, wasn’t bringing that fact up.

Kaito wasn’t going to argue with that good fortune. Maybe the shrunken detective still felt he owed from him for the train.  _Another case where he should have died don’t think about it don’t think about it-_

“Hakuba, it ain’t him,” Hattori added after an awkward beat, when the other detective had yet to move.

“It must be some kind of trick-”

“The blood was  _real_ ,  _you_ said that,” Hattori hissed.

“Blood? What are you talking about?” Kaito rubbed at his eyes. His vision still felt blurry, but it added to the just-woken-up effect.

“I-I… apologise, Kuroba,” Hakuba stuttered out at Hattori’s insistent poking. “It seems there was a mistake. Sorry for waking you, and… everything else.” His expression slowly began to morph into mortification as he realised that he really  _had_  just woken up an innocent person and felt up their bare chest in the middle of the night.

Not that Kaito  _was_  innocent. Under other circumstances, he might have enjoyed the ruse. As it was, he just wanted them all to  _leave_  so he could fall apart in peace.

“Okaaaaay, then. I’ll just… uh, see you at school on Monday? Maybe get some sleep, seems like you might need it,” Kaito said cautiously, then as politely as possible, shut the door in their faces.

He sank to the floor, listening as Hattori and Hakuba argued quietly on the front step before their footsteps carried them away.

 

………………

 

“S’good thing you didn’t break the door down,” Hattori said to Hakuba.

Hakuba scowled. “I thought he might be passed out in a pool of blood, forgive me for being worried! The upstairs window was open so I knew he was home.”

“Of course he was home, he’s not KID.” Hattori was keeping his tone reasonable but he was clearly enjoying Hakuba’s misfortune a bit too much. The half-British detective was visibly rattled by his deduction being proven so disastrously wrong.

Not that he  _was_  wrong, but Shinichi kept silent. He owed KID that much.

Neither of them had noticed. Granted, Shinichi had never told them that KID could pass as his doppelganger with no effort, so they had no reason to suspect anything else was afoot. Hattori was left too off-kilter by the resemblance, and Hakuba by the lack of injury.

Kuroba had looked awful. In more ways than one. Shinichi couldn’t explain the lack of bullet wound, but he was a seventeen year old parading around in a seven year old’s body. That wasn’t the sticking point.

The point that mattered was that Kaitou KID was clearly familiar with a member of the Black Organisation. ‘Snake’, he’d called him. Shinichi’s worst suspicions had been proven true.

They needed to talk.

“Y’know, if that wasn’t KID, doesn’t that mean he’s still out there somewhere? And the police haven’t found him yet,” he piped up.

Hakuba startled at that. “You’re right.”

“You reckon we should go lookin’ then? Division Two seemed to have a handle on it,” Hattori mused.

“It can’t hurt,” Shinichi pressed. “We know how KID operates. If we leave the obvious search path to the police, we can cover the gaps. At least until sunrise.”

Hattori nodded. “Once the sun’s up, he’ll either be holed up somewhere safe or a member of the public will find him. Yeah, okay, good point. I got energy to burn, let’s get looking.”

They parted ways with Hakuba. Shinichi was a bit worried about him – he was clearly doubting his own detective prowess at this point – but it made peeling away from him easier, and then once it was just him and Hattori it was a simple matter of ‘splitting up to cover more ground’.

It was to his benefit that Hattori routinely forgot that he was in the body of a seven year old, so didn’t think anything wrong with letting a child theoretically under his care go running off on his own at 3am. As it was, Shinichi would have to be stealthy. The streets of Ekoda were safe enough, but if anyone noticed a kid out on their own at this time the police would certainly be called and they would  _both_  be in trouble. Ran would ground him for  _months_.

He needed to do this though.

He retraced their steps to the house, stealing through the dark and silent side streets, hugging the fences and avoiding the pools of light made by the streetlights. There was an erratic path of darkness to Kuroba’s home, and likely how he made it back without anyone noticing him after the heist. Lights carefully and randomly disabled to ensure a clear and stealthy run home.

He arrived back on the dark doorstep, and knocked firmly five times. It hadn’t been long – he doubted KID had gone to sleep. Sure enough, he heard rustling on the other side of the door, then a moment later it swung open. Conan slipped inside. Sometimes being short and able to sneak past people’s legs was a plus.

Kuroba blinked down at him. “Oi, kid, what gives? I thought you guys left already.”

“Cut the act, KID. You might have fooled Hattori and Hakuba, but you can’t fool me. Close the door if you don’t want to risk an audience.”

Blankly, Kuroba did so. As soon as the door shut, his demeanour shifted, KID seeming to settle around his shoulders like an invisible cloak. Shinichi had been prepared to break down his denials, but it appeared that KID knew a lost cause when he saw one. “Does Mouri Ran know you’re inviting yourself into stranger’s houses at 4am?”

“You’re hardly a stranger at this point.”

“So what is this, then? Going to hand me over to the police now that you have my identity?”

“You’d go to ground the instant I tried. Besides, a lot of people witnessed you getting shot tonight, but Kuroba Kaito seems miraculously unharmed.” He gave the thief a beady stare. “How did you do that, anyway? That was real blood, the police tested it already.”

KID’s smile was fixed on his face – that same unflappable expression he always seemed to wear when he was in a tight spot. Shinichi had seen less of it lately, he realised. KID evidently had become too comfortable with Conan. “A magician never reveals their tricks, you know.”

Shinichi tilted his head, studying the thief closely. KID hadn’t turned on the lights, so his face was still shadowed and ghostly. “I don’t think that was a trick. You set up a deadman’s switch on those traps. You didn’t plan to survive that heist tonight.”

KID remained silent. The lack of witty comeback was an answer in itself.

Shinichi suddenly found himself unbearably  _angry_. “ _Suicide_ , KID, really?” That terror was back, that one moment when his heart leapt into his throat with the crack of a gunshot and the sight of KID stumbling on the roof. The memory a bloodstained smile as he fell over the edge. “I get that you wanted to catch that guy, but what made you choose  _that_  stupid method?”

KID ran a hand through his hair, averting his gaze. It was still so strange to see him without the top hat and monocle, but every gesture was so undeniably  _KID_  it proved how much his persona was carried off by acting and body language. When he finally spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper.

“What would you do, tantei-kun, if one day you discovered that Kudo Shinichi was actually dead, and Edogawa Conan was a monster thinking he was Kudo Shinichi?”

Shinichi stared at him, eyes wide. “You’re alive, though. Kaitou KID, Kuroba Kaito… you’re real.”

“Am I?” His grin gained a new sharpness to it, a knife’s edge. “You saw me get shot tonight, tantei-kun.”

“I’m currently  _seven years old_ , KID. Anything is possible at this point.” His thoughts were whirring though. According to Haibara, the apoptoxin had been created from research into an immortality drug, capable of raising the deceased. “Something happened. Something that makes you come back from the dead.”

“And here I thought such a tale too outlandish for a detective. I should know by now not to underestimate you, tantei-kun.” KID moved into the living room, sinking down onto a couch and waving at the one opposite. Shinichi took the seat on automatic, still processing all the possibilities.

“When?” he asked.

“When what, tantei-kun?”

“When did you realise?”

“Ah. I only realised quite recently, in fact. Some things were brought to my attention.”

When the pattern changed. “Was tonight the first time?”

KID’s gaze turned to the floor, shadowing his eyes. “…No, I don’t think it was. I didn’t realise, any of the other times. I chalked it up to luck.”

Shinichi felt like he was going to be sick. The heist with the Imperial Easter Egg. Had that not just been luck…?

“Then  _why tonight_?” He couldn’t move past it. It wasn’t that Shinichi didn’t understand – he’d had bleak moments, when he thought he might never escape living under an alias, nightmares of worst case scenarios involving the Black Organisation, but none of that fit with what he knew of  _KID_. Not to the point of going through with it.

“Why indeed, tantei-kun,” he replied serenely.

Shinichi wanted to groan in frustration. Kaitou KID hoarded secrets like a dragon hoarded treasure. Maybe it had something to do with the Magician’s Code, which he had apparently embraced to the highest degree and then spread to all the other areas of his life with reckless disregard for common sense or personal well-being.

Shinichi had thought  _he_  was bad. The next time Hattori got on his back for keeping secrets, he would be pointing to Exhibit A, Kaitou KID.

Still, Shinichi was a detective. If KID wanted to play that way, he’d let him. “You said on the roof, right before he shot you, that you were going to destroy it.” He tapped his chin in thought. “But if you only just realised, that it was  _you_... _”_ Shinichi choked off the next words.

_“What would you do, Tantei-kun, if one day you discovered that Kudo Shinichi was actually dead, and Edogawa Conan was a monster thinking he was Kudo Shinichi?”_

KID’s grin didn’t falter. “Ah, I can’t seem to slip anything past you tantei-kun. You heard more than I thought.”

“When?” Shinichi asked, haunted. “When did you die for the first time?”

KID hummed. “I’d say it was about… nine years ago now.”

About the same time the original Kaitou KID would have died. Was it like the apoptoxin? Was this the original KID after all? His build was different, but if he’d deaged… “Does that mean… you’re the original KID after all then?”

“You tell me, tantei-kun. You’re the legendary detective in the room.”

Shinichi didn’t think so. “If you’d actually found it nine years ago, you wouldn’t have only realised recently,” he mused. Then… “The original KID saved your life.”

KID flinched. Shinichi jerked in response – such a crack in the thief’s demeanour meant he must have stepped on a serious landmine indeed. Cautiously, he continued, “And you were willing to throw that away to destroy this thing?”

“Well, as you can see, it didn’t work. I thought perhaps a shot to heart would destroy it, but… here I am.” He took a shallow bow. “I underestimated the extent of its capabilities.”

Shinichi folded his arms. “Well, I’m grateful for it. There isn’t much that is permanent in this world, but a life once taken can’t be given back. Even if you seem to be an exception to the case now.” He sighed. “This wasn’t the reason I came back here to talk to you, though.”

Kuroba blinked. “You mean it wasn’t just concern for little old me? I’m hurt, tantei-kun.”

“That’s not-! Argh, shut up and listen would you?” Shinichi glared at the thief. “All this just confirmed what I already suspected. You and I appear to have some enemies in common.”

KID leaned back against the couch. “…Oh? What makes you think that, tantei-kun?”

“You called him Snake. He was wearing all black. How many criminal organisations using themed code names and a dress code can there be in Tokyo?”

KID made a small hum. “The people responsible for your current predicament? And that group on the train?”

“One and the same. The question is, how did  _you_  get involved, KID?”

“It was the original Kaitou KID who got involved. They wanted him to steal something for them.” KID flashed him a grin. “He turned them down, and they didn’t take kindly to that. You might say I’ve been involved ever since.”

The first time Kaitou KID had been killed?

Shinichi felt like he’d finally started to grasp the full picture now, with the scattering of puzzle pieces KID had provided him. There were still questions – what did immortality have to do with gemstones, for example – but all of that was ultimately less important than the issue of the Organisation. “I want to help,” Shinichi said. “We’re fighting the same guys. There’s only so much you can do as a thief, right? And you’ve got information on the Organisation that I don’t.”

KID tilted his head, considering. “You came back here alone instead of with those other two detectives from earlier. You’re planning to keep all of this from them?”

The flash of guilt was real – Hakuba had been  _genuinely worried_  about Kuroba, and Hattori already knew Shinichi was fighting the Organisation, and neither of them had planned to give up KID’s identity. “The fewer people involved, the better. Hakuba’s safe so long as he stays ignorant. Hattori knows about the Org, but he’s vulnerable. He’s got people he needs to protect. I’d rather not drag him any deeper than he already is.” He hunched his shoulders. “You and I, we’re already involved. And even then, if the Org ever catches wind that I’m still around, I’m as good as dead.”

“Hmm. About that, tantei-kun. I’m currently not much better off than you there.” He twirled a card in his hand – where he’d produced it from was anyone’s guess, given he was currently wearing short sleeves. “Current immortality aside, I didn’t make the decision to destroy this thing on a whim. My goal was to keep it out of the Organisation’s hands.”

“I’ll ask Haibara,” Shinichi promised. “If anyone can find a way, it’s her.  _Without_  having to kill you.”

“Hm. Well, you may inform the little lady that if there is no other way, I’ll take that option too.”

The request left a bad taste in his mouth. “I’ll let her know, but that’s a  _last resort_ , you understand?”

KID shrugged a shoulder. Shinichi just had to ask, “Are you really not that fond of immortality, KID? Most people would jump at the chance.”

“Immortality without agelessness, without invincibility? No, I can’t say that I am.”

Put like that, Shinichi could understand.

Haibara would be able to help. It couldn’t be any harder than making an antidote to the apoptoxin, and she’d already made such impressive headway there.

His phone beeped in his pocket. Hattori, probably checking in to see if he’d found KID. “I should get going. I’ll be in touch regarding the Organisation. Think you’ll be able to lay low for a bit?”

KID waved him off. “Disappearing is the most classic of magic tricks. Between the two of us, I’d say that you have the harder job.”

The shrunken detective couldn’t help but feel uneasy. It never left his mind for more than a moment that KID should be  _dead_. It mirrored his own situation a little too closely for comfort. And the thief's flippancy wasn't setting his mind at ease any. “You’re still  _you_ , okay? This is just a… temporary condition. We can fix it.”

KID looked amused, and strangely wistful. “If you say so.” He didn’t stand as Shinichi awkwardly made his way to the door. “Ne, tantei-kun?”

Shinichi paused, looking back. “KID?”

“…My eyes are actually blue, you know.”

Shinichi swallowed.

In the dregs of moonlight cast across the dark living room, KID’s eyes were decidedly purple.

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

 

“So what do you think?” Shinichi asked. “Do any of those sound familiar?”

Haibara sat deep in thought. They’d retreated to Agasa’s basement in order to have the conversation in private – even sunlight seemed to have the shrunken scientist shy away from discussing the organisation she was running from. “It does sounds like the Organisation. And I don’t recognise any of the names associated with it, but it reminds me of a project I heard about. The one that was the catalyst for the beginning of my parents’ work on the apoptoxin.”

“It made me think of APTX as well. I can’t figure out where the gemstones come into it, but then, maybe that’s unrelated. KID didn’t say.”

“There’s a part – one of the older parts – of the Organisation that has something of a fascination with the occult. It’s rather morbid, really. The sensible parts of the org don’t put much stock in it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if an offshoot branch was indulged in it. Some of the higher ups are quite superstitious.”

“Not unheard of. The only part I can’t figure out is their modus operandi,” Shinichi mused. “Normally when direct threats don’t work, they turn to friends and family, don’t they? But all things told, they seem to have mostly played by KID’s rules. They even keep the confrontations contained to his heists.”

“The Organisation has different methods of dealing with fellow criminals than they do with civilians and law enforcement,” Haibara commented distractedly, busy jotting down ideas on how to isolate and destroy whatever was causing KID’s immortality.

“Honour among thieves?”

“Don’t be foolish. There’s no honour with them. It’s more like not provoking enemies with the resources to fight dirty. Can you imagine what might happen if they pushed someone like KID, who already has a track record of evading them, too far?”

A shiver slithered down his spine. It could go either way. Maybe it would cow KID, send him running in fear or desperation to protect whatever he had left remaining. Maybe the trauma would have him go into hiding or capitulating to their demands.

Or maybe he would snap, and a previously non-violent adversary would gain teeth.

What kind of enemy would that make? An enemy who could disguise himself as anyone, who could break through seemingly any security and escape just as easily, who didn’t fear capture by the police, who was already a crack shot…

Put like that, Shinichi could see now why the Organisation had played largely by the thief’s own rules, instead of the extreme prejudice they were known for. “Things will change now, though,” he said. “They’ll be aiming to capture.”

“In that respect, KID’s smart to put the lethal option on the table.” Haibara’s tone was matter of fact. “I’ll do my best to find another way, but Kudo… you know if they get their hands on him, he won’t have a way out. Not like I did.”

Haibara had taken poison rather than deal with whatever the Organisation had in store for her. How much worse for KID, who could be killed over and over again without dying? “We won’t let it come to that,” he said fiercely.

Haibara’s expression remained unimpressed. “…Well, he is an escape artist. If anyone can take care of himself here, my money is on KID.” She pointed her pen at him. “You, on the other hand, are still very much mortal. I owe KID one, so I’ll help out, but that’s not an excuse for  _you_  to go catching  _their_  attention.”

“Of course not. I’ll be careful,” Shinichi promised. His head buzzed with all of the new information. He needed to get back in touch with KID soon, to pry more details from the thief. Every bit of new intelligence they could gather on the Organisation helped. This could be a big opportunity.

Haibara eyed him dubiously. “Sure you will. Like always, right?” Shinichi flushed. She hopped down from the table. “Either way, you should get your new friend over here some time so I can take some readings. Make sure he comes in disguise. Nothing will make the Organisation act faster than a hint of their enemies working together."

 

……………………

 

Going to school on Monday was eerie.

Kaito had spent the weekend holed up in his house with his doves. He’d fielded one worried call from Jii and his mother each, but he assured them rumours of his demise were nothing more than rumours, and wasn’t he here, talking to them? They were placated and diverted, and Kaito was left to wallow in peace.

He felt cornered. It wasn’t his smallest critic’s fault – if anything, the detective had helped somewhat with his offer of the little scientist’s assistance – but it didn’t change the fact that Kaito was in a situation he could not immediately see a path out of. One which he was powerless to change, and instead reliant on other actors to move when he could not.

“ _Bakaito_! Did you sleep at all this weekend?” Aoko scolded him as he slouched deeper into his seat.

“I was working on a really cool trick,  _Ahoko_.” He yawned through the words. He’d slept plenty, but the stress of it all still left him wrung out, and he’d woken early to nightmares. Or maybe coming back from the dead used up all of his energy reserves. A strange coldness still settled in his bones, that no amount of warm showers or blankets managed to chase out – one which had only begun to recede this morning. It didn’t matter, he was weeks ahead of the class. He could nap instead of playing pranks, give his classmates a break.

Aoko was distracted from further badgering by the classroom door sliding open to reveal Hakuba, who had bags under his eyes that rivalled Kaito’s. “Hakuba! Good morning!”

The detective nodded distractedly in response, before marching directly to Kaito. Without even bothering with a greeting, he promptly declared, “Kuroba, I need a blood sample.”

“What? Ew, no. What do you want my  _blood_  for?” Kaito leaned dramatically away from the detective.

Hakuba looked frustrated. “I just need to confirm something. I don’t need a lot!” He loomed over him with the syringe. Kaito yelped.

“First you’re feeling me up in the middle of the night and now you want my blood?! Are you a vampire?”

“ _What_?” Aoko shrieked. “ _Feeling you up_?”

Hakuba froze, face slowly turning tomato red. “That wasn’t- I was just…” he feebly protested.

Kaito slipped out of his seat to hide behind Aoko, whimpering. “Aoko, he’s gone mad! Protect me! He was tearing off my clothes like a beast!”

“I didn’t  _tear_  it, your shirt was-” Hakuba realised halfway through that sentence that there was no way he could finish without further incriminating himself.

Aoko was clutching her favourite broom now – put in her hands helpfully by Kaito himself – and eyeing the high school detective with confused wariness at this unexpected new form of pervert in her midst.

Kaito used this opportunity to slip into the hallway. There was still ten minutes until the start of class, and he preferred not to spend them dodging Hakuba’s syringe. The detective had evidently moved on from his initial shock and was now in denial mode. Why blood though?

He dragged a hand across his face. Of course. He’d bled all over that rooftop. Kaito was going to have to do some serious legwork to clear up any samples or files they had left on that – but that at least gave him a project. Who would work best as a disguise? The Inspector would be the easiest, he could track when he wouldn’t be in the office easily enough, and he would have the authority to access all the paperwork without question. There would be electronic records as well though. He’d need Nakamori’s login, maybe he could slip in and add a keylogger after school…

“Kuroba.”

That particular voice had him whirling towards the window. “Akako,” he replied neutrally, once his back was carefully situated against an escape route.

“Seems that last heist of yours didn’t go so well.” There was less taunting and more caution in her tone. Fishing.

The police were keeping quiet, so news of the shooting was confined to speculation and reports of gunshots, amidst the usual praise of the police for foiling the thief and keeping the Hope Diamond safe. It was enough to generate discussion but rumour alone didn’t make front page news, and the hubbub had died down over the weekend when nothing further emerged. A small mercy and a larger miracle.

“I’m not KID,” he replied automatically. “So I wouldn’t know.”

“So you keep saying. Well, it’s understandable you wouldn’t want to talk about it this openly, but we both know the truth.”

The number of people who knew his secret identity – or at least thought they knew it – was getting far too high. Those few months Hakuba had been in England had done wonders for his stress levels – leaving Akako the only one left to dodge. Now it seemed like he was being ambushed around every corner.

Still… Hakuba might be a threat, but Akako, for all she’d tried to kill him in the past, did at least appear uninterested in unmasking him. He considered the witch thoughtfully. While his littlest critic had promised the assistance of the diminutive scientist, he somewhat doubted that the mysteries of Pandora could be solved by science alone. And he couldn’t trust Akako, not at all, but she was standing right there as his only reliable source on the occult.

Pandora had evidently granted him some measure of immunity against her magic. It couldn’t hurt to ask.

“Hey Akako, is there anything in your repertoire that can raise people from death?”

Her eyebrows shot up. “ _Necromancy_ , Kuroba? I didn’t think you were the type to be interested in that.”

“Not necromancy exactly… well, yes, I guess it could be,” he muttered. Wasn’t that an awful thought. “Is that something sorcery can do?”

“To take a life is cheap,” Akako said, gaze distant, as though staring through him into the fabric of the cosmos. “It happens every day. Accident and illness and time and murder. To take a life through magic is the same amount of risk and effort as picking up a knife to stab them. That is to say, there isn’t  _none_ , but it fits within the natural order of things. The powerful will have an easier time of it than the weak. To give life  _back_ , however…” Her eyes seemed to glitter, motes of unnatural light glimmering in their depths. “That is no trivial power.”

“But is that something  _you_  can do?” he asked.

She stared at him, hard. “…I will not raise someone from the dead for you. That is a price I am not willing to pay.”

Kaito waved his arms frantically. “I don’t want you to! It was more a ‘can it be done’ question? Like, for example, is there a spell that can grant immortality?”

Her gaze turned thoughtful, and he worried for a moment that he might have given too much away. “What would you give me for that information?” she asked shrewdly.

Kaito’s back stiffened. “Nothing. I was just making conversation. Forget it.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and slouched, turning his head to stare out the window.

For a moment, it seemed like Akako might actually leave it. Or at the very least, would counter-offer something trivial to kick off a bargain. The silence stretched however, until finally she said, “There are stories. Nothing I’ve ever seen firsthand. A legend that drinking the blood of a mermaid will render one ageless. The ruby known as the Philosopher’s Stone that would produce the elixir of eternal life. Amrita, a crimson nectar that would flow from a crack in a statue carved from the heart of an ancient mountain.”

_“Red is the colour of magic_ ,  _Kuroba_.” Those words pounded in the back of his skull, over and over again. He couldn’t seem to escape it. Any one of them could be Pandora, could have been its vessel. Perhaps all of them were. History had countless retellings of the same events, twisted in every possible direction over time.

Kaito swallowed. Possibly he’d fallen into something far greater than he’d anticipated when he’d taken up his father’s quest.

“And such a curse… is there a way to lift it?”

Her gaze deepened – it was as though her eyes had turned into bottomless pools, tiny corridors to another world. Kaito did his best not to stare into them. “It’s interesting, Kuroba, that you call it a curse. Most would consider it a blessing.”

“I’ve heard some of those folktalkes. None of them end happily.”

“You’re not wrong, but it’s an uncommon wisdom for the unpracticed.”

“Is it possible, or not?”

She waved a hand airly. “Any curse can be lifted. But the more powerful the magic, the less pliable it tends to be. Applying it comes at a steep price. Removing it would be no less costly.”

“What price?” Kaito asked.

Her stare this time was long, and cold, and slightly scared. “…What have you stumbled upon, Kuroba?”

“What  _price_?” he pressed.

She was shivering now. “…Is this why my magic doesn’t work on you? What did you  _do?_ ”

The bell shrilled, drowning out anything further they might have said. The last of the stragglers were running down the hallway towards them.

“…Class is starting,” Kaito said, sweeping past back into the classroom. “We don’t want to be late.”

 

……………

 

The week wore on. Five and half days since KID had been shot. 132 hours. 7925 minutes.

Hakuba felt as though he were slowly going mad.

There had been no further word on KID. Either he’d died of his wounds and gone undiscovered – hidden by allies, perhaps – or he’d survived them and gone to ground. Or there had been no wounds in the first place, but tricks involving real blood seemed a tad too macabre, even for KID.

He dragged himself out of bed, where for the fifth night running he’d barely slept, unable to quiet his thoughts. Nothing robbed him of rest quite as effectively as a mystery unsolved, and he was beginning to despair of ever sleeping again.

Hakuba wasn’t yet entirely willing to give up on the notion that Kuroba was KID, despite the evidence. He’d been acting somewhat off prior to that heist, and even stranger since. Pranks and magic tricks were at an all-time low, and he’d started avoiding Akako with almost as much fervour as he spent avoiding Hakuba. Every afternoon he disappeared as soon as the bell rang, gone from class before even Aoko could collar him, destroying any hope of tailing him. Hakuba had been by his house two afternoons since, and neither time had his prime suspect been present.

So Kuroba, KID or otherwise, hadn’t been shot – that was good. He was evidently preoccupied by  _something_. Had it been his assistant? Hakuba was certain he had at least one accomplice. At the time he’d been sure it was the bonafide KID at the Hope Diamond heist, but as the week wore on he became less confident in his recollection.

He shuffled his way through his morning routine, stopping briefly to feed his hawk Watson – Baya refused to, only making an exception for when he was unable to do it himself - and found himself downstairs far too early.

“Breakfast isn’t ready yet, Young Master,” the housekeeper called out apologetically from the kitchen. “I’ve left the morning’s newspaper for you on the table with a pot of tea.”

“Thank you, Baya,” he replied, setting down with the paper. He scanned the headlines, took a sip of tea, flicked to the second page, and promptly choked.

_‘KID ANNOUNCES NEW HEIST’_

_‘Less than a week after he failed to steal with Hope Diamond, International Thief 1412 Kaitou KID sent a notice to all of Tokyo's major newspapers, announcing his intention to steal The Delong Star Ruby, currently on loan from the New York Museum of Natural History as part of the National Museum of Science and Nature’s mineral exhibit in Ueno.’_

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Hakuba groaned.

 


	6. Chapter 6

 

“I’m heading over to Professor Agasa’s!” ‘Conan’ called out.

Ran poked her head out of the kitchenette. “Okay, but call if you’re not going to be back in time for dinner okay? And don’t bother the Professor if he’s busy!”

“I won’t!” Shinichi promised in a childish sing-song that was becoming alarmingly second-nature. He stepped out of the detective agency and set off for the Professor’s House. As had become habit, he scanned his surroundings with a steely eye for anything out of place.

Nothing. The neighbourhood was as normal as it got. No black coats or cars, just the usual families and school children that were always out and about at this time of the afternoon. White doves flit through the trees, and the sound of children playing at Beika Park carried over the breeze.

Still, Shinichi didn’t let himself relax until he was running up the familiar steps to the Professor’s home. He knocked a few times on the door, and a moment later Haibara’s voice called out, “It’s unlocked, come in.”

He stretched for the handle, and pushed the door open. Haibara was standing in the living room sorting through a variety of medical implements. Ran sat on the couch next to her, dressed in a white blouse, blue skirt, and sunshine yellow flats.

“Ran?” Shinichi asked in confusion. Hadn’t he just left her back at the Detective Agency?

Then he looked again. Something wasn’t quite…

“ _KID_!” he yelled.

Ran – or rather, KID dressed as Ran – frantically waved a hand at him. “Keep it down, would you, tantei-kun? Or it rather defeats the purpose of coming here in  _disguise_  like you asked.”

Scowling, Shinichi slammed the door shut behind him. “Why  _Ran_?”

“I had to choose something that wouldn’t be suspicious! That rather limits my choices to people who interact with you on a regular basis.”

Haibara snickered. “He has you there, Kudo.”

Shinichi sputtered, but couldn’t come up with an appropriate counter-argument. Finally he eventually settled on, “What if Ran came with me? She does sometimes, you know.”

“I had an eye on things. I would have hidden if you weren’t alone,” KID dismissed, while Shinichi’s memory flit back to the doves in the trees. They weren’t exactly uncommon in the area, but had those been KID’s? It was a level of paranoia he hadn’t expected from the thief, though perhaps should have. It was relieving to know he was taking things seriously and not being as flippant about security as he appeared.

“I’m going to need some blood samples too,” Haibara said to KID. They’d evidently been at it for a while already – Shinichi had received the message to come over nearly twenty minutes prior.

KID let out a suffering sigh. The sound of his voice coming from Ran’s face was incredibly disconcerting. “After all the effort I’ve been spending to  _keep_  my blood out of other people’s hands, and here I am giving it up willingly.” He held out his arm, rolling up the sleeve of his blouse deftly.

“I’ll destroy it once I’m done with it,” Haibara promised. “I know just as well as anyone that you can’t take risks when  _those people_  are involved.”

“I appreciate your discretion,” KID replied, wincing slightly as the needle pierced the crook of his elbow.

“You leapt out of a blimp without hesitation to save that idiot over there, we owe you that much,” Haibara said crisply, filling each pre-marked vial with brisk efficiency. Once she was done, she slapped a cotton ball and some tape over the needle mark. “Have something to eat and drink before you leave, and don’t lift anything heavy with that arm for at least a few hours. Kudo, there’s muffins and tea already in the kitchen.”

Shinichi shuffled off to the kitchen at her orders, fetching the usual stool to reach the tray set up on the counter. The worst thing about being in the body of a seven year old was how so many mundane tasks involved so many extra steps.

Haibara had already vanished back into the basement by the time he returned to the living room, but KID was still sitting there dressed as Ran, combing her fingers through her hair. The disguise really was extremely good, and the memory of the first time KID had tricked him with it made his blood run hot. He dropped the tray on the coffee table. The cups rattled. “Here.”

If he picked up on Shinichi’s sudden irritation, KID didn’t show it. “Thanks, Conan, that’s so thoughtful of you!” he answered cheerfully in Ran’s voice, delicately picking up the teapot and pouring two cups. “Do you want some too?”

Oh, the thief  _knew_  alright. “Stop that,” he snapped. “You don’t need to do that  _inside_.”

KID just smirked at him. That expression was enough to shatter the illusion again. Ran never looked quite that conniving. “What’s the matter,  _Shinichi_?” he purred in Ran’s voice, tugging just ever so slightly suggestively at the collar of the blouse, showing off the barest hint of  _impossible_  cleavage. “You seem a little  _bothered_  by something. Why don’t you tell your  _big sis_ all about it?”

This was payback. There was no way this wasn’t payback.

Even knowing that, it was a mighty struggle not to kick a soccer ball into the thief’s smirk then and there. But there were more important agendas than playing into the thief’s manipulations. “Since I have you here, maybe you can answer something.” He slapped that morning’s newspaper against the coffee table. “What part of this is  _laying low_?”

Ran –  _KID, KID, everything about that expression was 100% KID –_  smiled at him. “Ah. That.”

“I know you’re having a rough time right now, but to- wait.” Shinichi narrowed his eyes, looking over the article again. “It’s not you, is it? It’s a copycat.”

KID said nothing.

Copycats were hardly unusual – sometimes it seemed to Shinichi that he ran into more people using KID’s name to get away with crimes than he did KID himself. But now, with this timing?

“It’s them, isn’t it?” he asked heavily, slumping down on the couch opposite.

“That’s a reasonable guess,” KID replied neutrally, crossing his legs. Shinichi was briefly distracted by the sight – KID even remembered to cross them in a properly ladylike fashion for the skirt he was wearing, how often did he  _practice_  this – before forcing his attention back to more serious matters.

Thinking on it, this was probably why KID chose to disguise as Ran. More than payback, he knew it would throw Shinichi off, distract him from his vulnerabilities. And the thief  _was_  vulnerable right now, of that there was no question.

“You’re not going, are you?” Shinichi demanded. “It’s obviously a trap.”

“What do you think will happen if I  _don’t_  go, tantei-kun?”

It was the Organisation. Normally, he’d understand – the odds of them taking hostages or killing bystanders if KID didn’t show was high. “They can’t know for  _certain_ that you’re immortal though, right? No one has publicly confirmed if you’re alive or dead yet. If you don’t show, there will be some doubt. They might even decide they were wrong, and drop the whole thing.”

“Perhaps. That would be a  _reasonable_  course of action. Can we guarantee they will be reasonable, though, given their track record?”

“They’ve played by your rules so far.”

“Because we were in competition. There’s a difference between a target and rival, tantei-kun. You should know that best, after all.”

“It’s too risky,” Shinichi argued. “You’d be playing directly into their hands.”

“I don’t intend to give myself up on a silver platter, tantei-kun,” KID responded wryly. “This is the most direct they’ve been yet, but we  _have_ tangled in the past. Isn’t this ideal for you anyway? The trap might be meant for me, but there’s no reason we can’t turn it back on them.”

“It’s not enough time!” A week to prepare for a KID heist was one thing – a week to prepare to fight with the Org? He needed to reach out to his contacts in the FBI and police, to scout the location, to get everything lined up as best as possible…

KID leaned over and flicked his forehead. Shinichi flinched, blinking in surprise. “You’re overthinking it,” he scolded. “No plan survives meeting with reality. I’ve done heists with less than a couple of hours’ notice – this should be cake.”

“But KID, you know if they catch you…” He didn’t want to say it, but it needed to be said.

He was a thief, and a criminal, but Shinichi had never once thought of him as a  _bad person_. He didn’t deserve that. No one did.

“I know, tantei-kun,” KID replied quietly. “I know.”

 

…………………………

 

Shinichi had spent the better part of an hour attempting to convince KID to sit the heist out anyway. The thief had refused to be moved on the matter, and when they finally shifted on to planning what to  _do_  at the heist, was frustratingly vague when it came to organising their response. Shinichi couldn’t tell if it was because he had something up his sleeve that he knew the detective wouldn’t approve of, or if it was just how Kaitou KID planned  _every_  heist.

Considering some of the care and apparent forethought that had gone into past heists, Shinichi was inclined to bet on the former.

So KID was a wildcard, but at least one that was on his side this time. Shinichi would just have to plan on his own and trust that the thief would be quick enough on the uptake to adjust. They’d worked well together in the past with less coordination, once against the very Organisation itself, so he had no choice to hope it went as well this time.

KID had been right, after all. This was a rare opportunity.

Shinichi left the confines of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Station, eager for some sunlight and fresh air to clear his head after the past twenty four hours. No sooner had he settled himself out of the way on the steps did a familiar face come tromping through the front doors.

“Hattori?” Shinichi asked. “What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be back in Osaka by now.”

“Could ask you the same question, K-Conan!” Hattori caught his blunder at the last second. “I got caught up in a case in Jimbocho, got a court appearance as a material witness I gotta stick around for. Just finished up my interview, then overheard the fuss  _this_  guy was making.” He jerked a thumb at Hakuba, who was walking down the steps just a few paces behind.

The junior detective looked extremely put out – although that always seemed to be the case when Hattori was around. “I came to share my deductions with Inspector Nakamori, but  _as usual_  he refuses to listen.” He nodded in greeting. “Edogawa Conan.”

“Hi! I just got dragged along with Uncle Kogoro,” Shinichi offered. “He got called in for another case. Ran’s here somewhere too.”

“I take it you saw the notice about the heist, though.”

Shinichi nodded with childish enthusiasm. He’d been lax around Hakuba lately, so it didn’t hurt to sell the image while he remembered, especially with Hattori’s constant near-slips. “It was all over the news!”

“And what did you think?”

“I think it’s an imposter,” Shinichi said. “It isn’t KID’s work at all.”

Hakuba nodded. “I thought so as well. And given the occurrence at the previous heist, I think the odds are high that it’s this ‘Snake’ character’s work.”

“Yeah, it’s a trap,” Hattori agreed. “But KID would know that, right? He won’t come?”

“Assuming he can.” Shinichi felt a stab of a guilt when he realised that Hattori and Hakuba  _still_  didn’t actually know for certain that KID was okay. “In his mind, he won’t have a choice,” Hakuba said, hands curling into fists of frustration. “It seems KID’s been luring them out all along, and now they’ve turned the tables. KID never ignores imposters. At first it was just copycats, or criminals trying to get away with it by pinning the blame on KID, but crazed fans have done it before just to get the chance to meet their idol. The  _police_  did it once to set up a trap. He turned up anyway. His reputation is important to him. Pathologically so, I would say.”

“So there’s no chance of convincing him to sit this one out?” Hattori grumbled.

“Has anyone in all of history been able to convince Kaitou KID to do something he doesn’t want to do?” Hakuba retorted.

“With blackmail, maybe,” Shinichi muttered.

“What was that?” Hakuba asked.

Shinichi laughed nervously. “Nothing! You’re right.”

“So we assume KID’s going to turn up then,” Hattori said. “What do  _we_  do about it?”

“We set a trap of our own,” Shinichi declared, hopping up from his step.

Hattori grinned at him. “Oh, I like the way you think. It’s a two-edged sword they’re wielding, ain’t it?”

Hakuba looked thoughtful, but unconvinced. “I had a similar idea, but the Inspector wouldn’t listen. How do we lay a trap without the cooperation of the police?”

Hakuba was a talented detective, but Shinichi was beginning to see how much of his approach was hamstrung by thinking inside the box. This was probably why he and Hattori inevitably butted heads every time they met – the Osakan was all instinct and spontaneity with his approach. They were polar opposites, but if Shinichi could get them to work together, it could be a potent combination. “We don’t necessarily need them to cooperate  _knowingly_. We just have to make sure they’re in the right places at the right time.” Shinichi folded his arms smugly. “What kind of detectives would we become if we couldn’t even predict how a criminal might move?”

Besides, as Conan and Shinichi both, he had strings he could pull that the other two detectives couldn’t. He didn’t want to get Hattori and Hakuba involved at all honestly, but just like KID, there was no way Shinichi would be able to convince them to sit out the heist. This way he at least had a chance of keeping them out of the line of fire.

“Sounds like you’ve got a plan cooking.” Hattori ruffled his hair with a grin. “What are you thinking?”

Hakuba didn’t agree verbally, but he had his keen attention anyway.

Three prodigy detectives. A handful of FBI agents. Division Two, and maybe Division One if he could arrange it. A wildcard of a phantom thief. And one massive, illegal Organisation that wouldn’t hesitate to kill them all to fulfil their goals.

One week to prepare.

It wasn’t enough.

It would have to be enough. 

 


	7. Chapter 7

 

Akako cornered him in the hallway at lunchtime. “Don’t go to the heist tonight.”

Kaito had just about enough of everyone telling him  _not_  to go to the heist. Even Hakuba had ordered him not to, though hadn’t seemed to be able to decide whether it was as a spectator or as the thief and settled for a blanket ban either way. As though he had any  _choice_  in the matter. “I wasn’t going to, anyway. It’s in Ueno right? It’s a bit far.”

The witch’s gaze all but smouldered. As always, she saw right through his lies.

Kaito held up his hands in surrender. “What have you been seeing in that crystal ball of yours? Do I trip and fall into a puddle? Do I get kidnapped and sold into slavery? Does Hakuba finally get my shirt off?”

“Kuroba!” She snatched at his wrist. Kaito twisted and pulled it free with ease, slipping below the scrape of her nails. “I’m serious.”

“When  _aren’t_  you serious?” he sighed. She’d no doubt guessed a lot from their last conversation, given how she’d been acting around him the past week. “Are you just here to warn me, is that all? I didn’t have much of a warning for the last ten times things went pear-shaped. What makes this time different?”

She scowled at him. “This isn’t an act of divination. I overheard what Hakuba said to you earlier.” She poked a finger at his chest – he dodged it like it was a live snake. “Do you know how much blood has been spilled in pursuit of legends? I have no idea how you came in possession of your power, Kuroba, but it is not a power to be dealt with lightly.”

“You don’t need to convince me of that.”

“And that is why I would prefer it remain in  _your_  hands, the hands of a genial idiot obsessed with pranks and illusions, than someone with  _real_ ambition.”

“Hey!” Kaito defended, his offence only half-faked. Then, “Aww, do you really trust in me that much?” he crooned, leaning in close with half-lidded eyes.

Akako flushed pink. It was almost cute. “M-moron! I’m talking about something important here!” She huffed, and pulled an orb from her pocket and tossed it at him. Kaito snatched it from the air with a handkerchief – he didn’t trust catching something the witch threw with his bare hands. It revealed a small crystal bauble, etched with hundreds of tiny grooves, slightly larger than a golf ball.

“What’s this?”

“Lifting a powerful curse almost always involves the destruction of its vessel,” she said. “Magic likes permanence, Kuroba. No matter how hard you pull, without sufficient exchange, it will simply settle right back into place. That’s why it won’t leave, unless there’s nothing for it to return to.”

He’d worried about that, but he didn’t see what this trinket had to do with it.

“I can’t lift such a curse for you. That’s not a power I have, or a cost I can pay. But this can help you trick it. Roll it in your blood when its hold is at its weakest,” she said. “And it will resettle there, instead.”

Kaito’s fingers tightened on the bauble reflexively.

It suddenly started to look a lot like a gem.

“And this?” Kaito asked. “What does this cost?”

Akako smirked at him, and he felt a shiver down his spine. It seemed to vary by the day whether the witch wanted to kill him or court him, and right now he couldn’t tell which it was. “This? The pleasure of having a self-proclaimed charlatan acknowledge the power of  _true_  magic is all the payment I need.” Her gaze darkened, and the smile dropped from her face like a falling shadow. “But my earlier warnings stand, Kuroba. You shouldn’t go to the heist. This is only so that power doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.”

Kaito nodded, and smoothly slipped the trinket into his pocket.

Being shot in the heart wasn’t enough. But being shot in the heart, with this on hand?

That might change things.

Of course, if he were dead there wasn’t much to stop Snake was simply walking up and claiming Pandora for himself. But Kaito was a magician as well as a thief. He could work with this.

 

………………

 

“You’re heading to the heist, then?” Haibara asked.

Shinichi tugged on his shoes, double-checking the charge was full. “Yeah. I need to get there a bit early so we can double-check the perimeter.” The day had arrived much too fast. There were still so many details left to put in place, and there was mere hours left to go. He’d made his excuses to Ran, planned to spend the night at Professor Agasa’s while she went out with Sonoko, then ran straight over so as not to waste any time. “Did you make any progress on the cure for KID?”

“It’s… it’s a 95% match to the apoptoxin.” Haibara’s voice shook on the words. She held out a clear pill bottle. Only two pills, coloured blue and white, rested inside.

“You’ve got something already?” That was fast work, even for Haibara.

“I’d already made it up. It’s… one of the rejected cures.”

Shinichi accepted it cautiously. The pills rattled against the plastic. “Rejected because…?”

Haibara turned her face away. “It’s a poison in itself. The apoptoxin would be neutralised, but the subject would still die.”

Shinichi’s fingers clenched around the bottle. “Haibara, that’s not-”

“A week isn’t enough time!” she interrupted. “Look, the chance isn’t zero. In KID’s case, his immortality might keep him alive long enough through the process to survive it. I don’t- I don’t understand everything about this, some of these compounds don’t even make  _sense_  in the current understanding of physics and chemistry, but it’s the best I could do in the time we had.”

Shinichi stared down at the bottle. He wanted to throw it against the wall.

Haibara grabbed the hand holding it, gently pushing it to his chest. “Kudo, promise me. You need to give it to him.” She looked haunted – shades of Sherry showing on her youthful face. “If the Black Organisation gets their hands on him…”

“We won’t need it,” he said. “You have to keep working on another cure.”

“And I will,” Haibara said. “But  _promise_ me, Kudo.”

Shinichi swallowed. “I promise.” The words tasted of acid.

It went against his every philosophy. And he already knew KID would take the way out if it came down to it, if it meant completing his mission. He’d already arranged his own death once, after all.

So Shinichi needed to make sure he never had a reason to make that choice.

“I promise,” he repeated. “But we won’t need it. I’ll make sure it.”

 

………………

 

Ueno Park was crawling with people – media, police, fans, with a healthy dose of the usual crowds that passed through it on a daily basis. A perimeter had been set up around the museum, with a second drag net on all of the roads leading to and from ready to fall into place once the heist started, and a line to the train station to halt services if necessary. All carefully secret, in unmarked cars and un-uniformed agents.

Shinichi stared up at the dark sky – the light pollution in Tokyo made it difficult to see anything but the brightest stars. It wasn’t long until the heist. He sighed, sticking his hands in his pockets. He’d briefed everyone as well as he could. Jodie had things well in hand, and he’d sent Hattori to help coordinate the park side of the perimeter, and Hakuba to keep watch on the west side of the building. Both positions that he’d already cleared of the Black Organisation’s agents, with help from official police close at hand. The other two detectives would be safe.

Now there was nothing more to do than wait, and keep his eyes out for anyone suspicious in the crowd.

A shift of fabric by his side had him tense for a moment, until he spotted Ran sidling up to him. Ran, who was definitely in Shinjuku with Sonoko, enjoying an expensive dinner show they’d ‘won’, courtesy of Shinichi Kudo’s private funds. He’d been very careful to make sure both of them would miss this heist.

“So you came after all,” Shinichi said.

“You already knew I would,” Ran replied cheerfully.

Shinichi sighed. He’d been hoping… but the thief was right, and had made no secret of his intentions to show up. “She made up some pills for you. But you’re not allowed to use them.” He tossed the thief the small pill bottle.

Ran caught the bottle one-handed, and rattled it. “And why is that?”

“It’s poison. It’ll fix your problem, but there’s a 99% chance it will kill you in the process.” Shinichi scowled. “It’s insurance. Worst-case scenario only, you got it?”

“Well, 99% is better odds than my previous plan,” was all Ran said in response. At Shinichi’s glare, she laughed. “Relax, Conan. I’m not going anywhere until that man is dealt with.”

That was actually slightly reassuring. KID had a vendetta with Snake, and Shinichi could believe he wouldn’t do anything  _too_  drastic that would jeopardise that. “Just be careful, alright? These guys… they’ve pulled their punches with you so far, you know. But if they get serious, this could go bad fast.”

“I know.” She pulled out what looked like crystal golf ball. “You aren’t the only one who has been working on solutions.”

Shinichi stared at it. It caught the light strangely, making it look hollow. “What’s this?”

“A means to destroy it. Granted, one that isn’t without its own risks.” Ran hummed, and with a flick of her wrist, the crystal vanished.

“Worst-case scenario only,” Shinichi reminded the thief. “Haibara’s working on a better solution.”

Ran caught him in a side-hug. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this. You behave yourself, Conan! No getting into trouble, you hear?” Then she was gone as quickly and soundlessly as she’d arrived, without once breaking character. KID was off to do whatever it was he had planned, and there was only minutes left to the scheduled start of the heist.

Shinichi scuffed his shoes on the pavement, cast a steely eye over the crowd one more time for any hint of black coats, and headed towards the museum foyer. His earpiece crackled.

“Jodie?” he asked.

“Cool Kid. We’ve got what might be snipers in our sights. Be careful down there. We’re moving in, but we might not reach them before the heist starts.”

“Roger that.” His heart thumped in his ears. It was real. This was happening.

He hurried to the Special Exhibit Entrance at the Global Gallery, slipping past the legs of police officers. Division Two were high strung – after all, they’d seen KID get shot, and no one bar Shinichi and his associates  _knew_  KID would show up – so he had to be sneakier than normal. Luckily, being short in a crowd made it easier for him to slip beneath everyone’s notice.

Megure and Division One were present too, thanks to his voice changer and a tip off from Shinichi himself. Given the events of the last heist, it hadn’t been hard to convince the Inspector to show up. He’d instructed the Inspector to be careful with who he shared details with – as far as his squad was concerned, this was a precaution, not a sting. Shinichi didn’t think the Org had physically infiltrated either Division One or Two, but he absolutely believed that there were leaks somewhere in the department. Too much evidence had gone missing, too many cases gone un-investigated for the Org to not have their fingers in the Tokyo police  _somewhere_.

He checked his watch. Two minutes to go.

The exhibit was technically closed, but the amount of people about made it easy to slip to the Special Exhibition Hall where the Delong Star Ruby was on display. Nakamori was walking around, still pinching faces, checking for disguises up until the last minute. It was lax of him not to have locked the area down yet – though the open floor plan made it inherently difficult. Maybe he was actually hoping KID would show.

Shinichi checked his watch. Ten seconds.

Five.

One.

…Another thirty seconds passed, as everyone present held their breath. A minute beyond, people began to shift, checking their watches in turn. Kaitou KID was famously punctual.

Three minutes.

“Do you think he even  _can_ come?” one of the officers asked in a low voice. “At the last heist, it didn’t look good.”

“Why would he send a notice if he couldn’t?” another one whispered back.

“Heh,” Shinichi said, just loud enough for both to hear. “Isn’t it obvious?”

They two officers glanced down at him in surprise. “Oh! It’s the KID-killer!”

Shinichi grimaced. The moniker was less welcome now, considering. “It’s not him. It’s a copycat.”

Clapping echoed throughout the hall at his words. Abruptly, the lights cut. Someone squeaked in fright. Then, booming over the loudspeakers, “Quite right, tantei-kun. But never let it be said that I’ll decline an invitation to snatch such a prize.” With a snap, the room was filled with blinding light again – spotlights, all focused on KID, standing on a dais just above the Delong Star Ruby.

“Kaitou KID!” The wave of shouts were more relieved than panicked.

Until the room suddenly filled with the thunder of gunfire.

KID’s cloak and top hat were torn to shreds in an instant, scraps of white fabric flying through the air. “KID!” Shinichi yelped in horror.

Except it wasn’t – KID swelled, then burst into a cloud of billowing purple smoke, the haze quickly filling the hall.

A dummy.

Shinichi grimaced. He couldn’t believe he’d fallen for a  _dummy_ , even if only for an instant. He reached for his earpiece. “Jodie, we’ve got active shooters in the building. KID’s on the move.”

“Roger that. We’ve got the snipers, setting the drag net into place now. Stay safe in there Cool Kid.”

In the background, Nakamori was shouting orders. The ground was littered with shattered glass and shreds of fabric. Shinichi spent a moment orienting himself, then headed towards the edges of the room. The haze would be thinner there, and he might be able to see what was going on.

Halfway there, he tripped over something. He scrambled back to his feet, to the sight of a man dressed in black, trussed up in ribbon with a bow over his head, and a pistol splashed with neon yellow paint next to him. He was knocked out cold.

“Inspector! I think I found one of the gunmen!” Shinichi hollered.

Nakamori stormed through the smoke towards his voice. “I think this is KID’s handiwork,” Shinichi said guilelessly, blinking up with childish innocence at the Inspector.

“Of course it is. Chiba! We’ve got a shooter for you, get over here!”

“There was more than one! I bet there are others around,” Shinichi declared, and ran off into the purple haze.

“You damn brat! Get back here, it’s not safe-”

Clever of KID, revealing himself like that. The Org had planned for it, evidently – not even bothering to dress up a fake KID for the heist - but it worked against them now. With the real KID disguised on the edges, he could use the cover generated to pick off his assailants one by one and tag them for the police.

Bold, crazy, and dangerous, but also elegantly simple. The mouse had rigged the cheese.

Shinichi found two more of the gunmen KID had knocked out, and other police officers stumbled across another one. Four down, plus the snipers outside, but Shinichi doubted that was even close to all of them. There was still no sign of ‘Snake’, after all.

The distant report of gunfire confirmed that thought. KID had made it outside the hall.

He couldn’t lose the thief. He’d made Haibara a promise after all, and while he might have fudged the particulars, he intended to see it through in his own way. It had been a generic pill bottle after all, and equally generic pills. In his pocket, he still had the real-

Shinichi paused, mind flashing back to when ‘Ran’ had hugged him before running off.

He hadn’t-

He fished the second bottle of pills out of his pocket. The same marked bottle he’d been careful to give to KID, now adorned with a smiling KID sticker.

He  _had_.

“KID, you bastard,” he whispered. How had he  _known_?

Did he really intend to-?

_“What would you do, Tantei-kun, if one day you discovered that Kudo Shinichi was actually dead, and Edogawa Conan was a monster thinking he was Kudo Shinichi?”_

Shinichi dropped the pill bottle and set off at a run. 

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not really happy with how I wrapped up this fic but here it is, at least it has an ending? Sort of ran out of steam towards the end. I'm dying to get my eyes on that Fist of the Blue Sapphire movie though. Thanks for reading.

 

Hakuba was supposed to stay back and keep watch with binoculars, but once the sound of gunshots went off the heist descended into total bedlam. Half of the crew he’d been shadowing were busy calming the public and organising a vetted evacuation, the other half were on their radios for reinforcements or rushing to provide backup to Division Two inside the museum.

Word was KID was inside, the  _real_  KID. But he needed to see for himself. To know for  _sure._ Or he would never be able to close his eyes again without seeing that blood-stained smile as he fell backwards off the rooftop.

Which led to the teenage detective clattering his way up the western fire escapes of the Global Gallery. The main entrance was locked down, but in the absence of windows, KID would head to the roof – he always did. Hakuba would be convinced, with at least a glimpse…

The second floor door bust open, and a figure in white whirled out of it, shutting it just as fast then slamming something into the handles. Hakuba froze just shy of the landing.

It was KID.

For a long moment, the detective wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be reaching for handcuffs or not. That thought flew out of his head as KID listed hard against the door he’d just jammed shut, leaving a smear of blood behind. “KID?!”

“Tantei-san?” KID gasped. “What are you doing here?”

The question was so left field that it stalled Hakuba’s lurch towards the injured thief. “It’s a heist, why  _wouldn’t_  I be here?”

KID waved a white gloved hand airily. “You’re supposed to be  _safe_. Further away.” Then he slid to the ground, choking for breath as he fumbled with the buttons on his jacket.

It was the closest Hakuba had ever come to the thief, without his face cast in shadow or in the middle of a chase. The tophat was knocked half askew, exposing it to the ambient moonlight, with only the monocle stubbornly remaining in place.

For a face he saw every day, it was more than enough.

“It  _is_  you,” Hakuba hissed. “Kuroba, what the hell-”

“Don’t know who you’re talking about,” he lied glibly. To his face. As though Hakuba couldn’t  _see_ , for himself, up this close- the thought scattered as KID pulled a mangled plate of metal out of his dress shirt and tossed it to the side. It hit the stairs with a clatter.

“Is that… haven’t you heard of Kevlar?” That couldn’t have been light, or comfortable.

“Kevlar’s useful against handguns – not so good against rifles,” KID informed him in a light voice that was at odds with the heaving of his chest for breath. He let out a hiss between his teeth as he shifted. “It was a mistake even so. Only slowed me down.”

Hakuba could see it, now. “You’ve been shot.” Places the armour hadn’t covered. The blood drenching the left arm of KID’s suit, another on his right hip, slowly painting his pant leg a vivid crimson. A little further in, it could have hit the femoral artery.

“Slipped up on the fifth one,” Kuroba explained, in KID’s voice, with the casualness of talking about a math exam. “They had goggles, saw me coming. Got a lucky shot in.” He grinned. “I got them back well enough. But then there was the second wave…”  
  
Neither wound was life-threatening on its own, but the amount of blood pooling on the stairwell was concerning. And the damage to the improvised armour plating suggested serious bruising at a minimum. Hakuba moved to check his vitals, but hesitated as his gaze drifted across that all-too-familiar face, and the glint of vivid indigo that greeted him.  
  
"Kuroba your eyes are..."  
  
"Gibbous moon," KID muttered nonsensically in reply.  
  
“What-” The question was abruptly smothered by KID’s hand pressed firmly over his mouth – the thief’s expression sharp, purple eyes narrowed in concentration. A moment later, Hakuba heard it. Shouts coming from inside, and running footsteps.  
  
It didn’t sound like the police.

The door shuddered. Kuroba tensed.

Voices muttered angrily behind the door. “It’s locked. You sure he came this way?”

“There’s too many damn police here, we’re gonna get boxed in.”

“Keep moving, he must have gone up the escalators. We scored a direct hit, he can’t have gone far.” Their footsteps receded again, and KID relaxed.

“They’re the ones who organised the heist?” Hakuba whispered once KID finally removed his hand. Then, furiously, “It  _was_  you. Was that a ruse last time?  _Whose blood was that_?”

“Ah,” KID said. “My apologies, Tantei-san, that you had to see that.”

_“Answer the question_!”

“A magician never reveals his secrets,” KID retorted.

“This is serious!” Hakuba fumed, ready to shake the thief by the shoulders if it wouldn’t just make his wounds worse. “You were shot. You  _are_  shot. People are willing to  _kill_  you.” Thievery seemed so trite in context. “Why would you keep doing this under those conditions?! Spider was bad enough, but this-!”

Kuroba’s poker face didn’t so much as twitch. “Tantei-san. Did you think I stole gems for  _fun_?”

Hakuba was left speechless.

They’d discussed it, after all. Hattori and Edogawa. That there was more to the thief’s heists than merely glory-seeking or adrenaline rushes or mischief-making, especially given he rarely if ever profited from his endeavours. And Hakuba had always privately wondered how Kuroba could do such a thing to Aoko – by all reports, the only person who was comfortable claiming him as a friend. For all they fought, it was obvious they were close, just as it was obvious how much Aoko detested Kaitou KID. Obvious in the way of how angry she got at him whenever he accused her friend of being the phantom thief.

Whatever it was, he was willing to hurt Aoko for it. How much of a leap from there was it, to be willing to  _die_  for it?

“Kuroba…”

“I don’t know who that is,” KID interrupted again. He straightened his top hat, casting his face back into shadow once more.

Hakuba crossed his arms. “Fine, be that way.” He watched in stony silence as the thief struggled back to his feet with a grimace. His frown deepened with concern as he swayed in place. “You’ve lost too much blood. You need medical attention.”  
  
“I’ll live,” he said, then chuckled darkly at something he apparently found funny about that.

"Don’t be ridiculous. There's an ambulance out front of the main museum. We'll get you to a hospital. You can even change out of costume if that’s what it takes."  
  
"An ambulance?” KID paused, intent. “Ah, so that was their plan." He reached up to his ear, fiddling with something. “Tantei-kun? You might want to get your people to check any medical services in the nearest vicinity.”  
  
“You’re talking to Edogawa?” Hakuba asked incredulously. “You involved a  _child_  in this?” He and Hattori had made plans with Edogawa’s input, but nothing like  _this_.  
  
KID glanced at him from the corner of his eye. “Tantei-kun tends to involve himself. Much like you, detective.” Then hissed as he stumbled, bracing himself against the wall.  
  
Despite himself, Hakuba rushed to assist. It was  _Kuroba._ “You need help. You’ve got a hole in your leg. Don’t be a hero.”  
  
Kuroba latched onto his arm, with surprising force to his grip, and stared him down with those unsettling indigo eyes. They almost seemed to glow in the moonlight. Could contacts  _do_ that? "Tantei-san, if you really insist on helping, you do everything you can to keep me out of that ambulance. Even if I’m dead." Then he pushed away, wobbled a moment, and determinedly began to head up the stairs.  
  
Unsettled, Hakuba followed, as though pulled by a string. The ambulance was a trap, then. What sort of enemies had Kuroba made? This was of a far larger scope than what he’d expected when they planned to catch the copycats in turn. “You’re going to the roof? They’ll expect that.”  
  
“Tantei-kun’s people have things covered on the ground,” he said. “But there’s still a matter I need to see to.”  
  
As they reached the roof, KID moved away, suddenly walking straight and tall as though his wounds didn’t hinder him at all. Hakuba followed after him, keeping a wary eye out for gunmen.   
  
The magician took barely ten steps into the skydeck when the air filled with bullets.  
  
Hakuba scrambled for cover, while KID dashed along the building’s edge, half a breath ahead of the hail of ammo chipping at the concrete beneath his heels. He vanished in a burst of smoke, then his voice echoed across the space. “Come on out, Snake. I know you’re here.”  
  
A moment later, the black-clad gunman emerged from his hiding place amidst the shrubbery of the roof’s herb garden.   
  
“I figured you had some trick planned, but working with law enforcement – that I didn’t expect.” Snake grinned. It looked near manic. “You’ve caused me a lot of trouble, KID, but that ends tonight. You’re coming with us.”  
  
“I’m so sorry, but that is an invite I will have to decline. Other plans, you know.” KID’s voice bounced strangely across the roof. Hakuba scanned the deck, but couldn’t see where the thief even  _could_  be hiding. There wasn’t exactly a lot of cover.  
  
“It ain’t negotiable,” Snake said, and then suddenly Hakuba was staring down the barrel of a gun pointed at  _him_. “You’re a slippery one. But I wonder if you can say the same thing about your friend here.” The grin on his face stretched, a vivid slash of cruelty. “Come on out yourself, KID, or we’ll find out.”  
  
“Don’t-” Hakuba started to call out.  
  
Kuroba didn’t even hesitate – seeming to materialise in front of Hakuba, white cape flaring, then taking several deliberate steps to the side. Blocking and drawing Snake’s shot, in one smooth move getting Hakuba out of the line of fire. “No need to involve others,” he said mildly. “It doesn’t exactly make our contest sporting, you know?”  
  
“I don’t know, seems awfully good at getting you to do what I want,” Snake sneered. “I see what you’re doing. Stay put, KID, or maybe my aim will stray.”  
  
“Shooting him might give you more enemies than you can deal with. His father is quite high up in the police. Maybe even too high for your people to handle, hmm?” KID suggested.  
  
Snake responded by shooting KID in the chest.   
  
“Kuro-!” Hakuba bit the shout off in his throat, the name swallowed by the echo of the gunshot. Kuroba went down, hard. Snake started laughing.  
  
It was at that moment Edogawa Conan burst onto the roof.

 

………………

 

The instant Shinichi stepped onto the skydeck, he knew he’d miscalculated.  
  
He’d been in a panic once he’d lost track of KID, and realised the thief had stolen the true pills. So what else to do but go up – KID nearly always went to the roof, and the police did everything in their power to stop him getting there because once he made it, his getaway was as good as in the bag. But there were almost certainly agents of the Org there, since they knew that too. They hadn’t been able to sweep the roof before the heist without risking tipping them off to the trap.  
  
He made to take a step back, to return to cover, but Snake had seen him. “You, boy. Over here with the other one. No funny business.”  
  
If the gun were pointed at  _him_ , it wouldn’t have mattered – Shinichi would have dodged, or counter-attacked – there was any number of things he could do. Pointed at KID – regrettable, but KID would at least live. But he couldn’t risk Hakuba. What was the other detective even  _doing_  up here? He was supposed to be with the squad dealing with the west side of the park!  
  
Shinichi cautiously moved, at Snake’s impatient gestures, to stand between KID’s fallen form and Hakuba. The thief wasn’t looking good – there was more red than white on his costume. He was still breathing, though. Still conscious, too.  
  
“You know killing me won’t do any good, right, Snake?” KID rasped. Trying to draw the attention from the detectives to himself, Shinichi guessed. Exactly the way he’d done at the last heist.  
  
“Certainly slows you down, though.” He shifted the aim of his gun, and fired. Shinichi flinched as KID jolted, grasping reflexively at the new wound in his stomach. “We’re going to get Pandora from you, one way or another.” He fired again. KID made a noise that wasn’t quite a scream, more of a choked wail.  
  
“Stop it!” Hakuba demanded, face pale and eyes transfixed on the fallen magician. “Why are you doing this?”  
  
Snake ignored him. “Thought you were so clever, didn’t you? Not so clever now.”  
  
“I wouldn’t… be so sure… about that.” KID should have been dead, should have been down for the count, but he somehow rolled to his side, sluggish and in pain but  _moving_. With a shaking hand, he pulled something from his sleeve.  
  
Shinichi’s blood froze at the sight of a small pill bottle.  
  
“What are you doing, KID?” Snake threatened. “No tricks, remember, or I put a bullet straight in the boy’s heart!”  
  
“No tricks. I’m simply getting rid of Pandora, Snake, just like I promised.” He met Shinichi’s gaze, a hint of apology in those indigo eyes.   
  
“KID, no!” Shinichi yelled, moving to run forward, but Hakuba pulled him back as Snake turned his gun on him. He struggled against the detective’s hold even so. KID was going to  _die_ , he couldn’t just stand there and watch!“It’ll kill you!”  
  
KID didn’t even hesitate. He slipped the pills into his mouth and swallowed.  
  
It only took a matter of moments before the thief started to convulse. Shinichi could only stare in horror, not even the painful tightening of Hakuba’s grip able to tear his eyes away.  
  
Worst case scenario. KID would have ensured the Org didn’t get their hands on him, but…  
  
It wasn’t fair. It was too much.  
  
“What is it, boy?” Snake demanded, taking a cautious step back as KID writhed on the ground. “What did he do?  _Answer me_!”  
  
“It was… it’s a counter-measure… a poison that…” Shinichi choked on the words.   
  
He’d killed him. He should have refused the pills, no matter how insistent Haibara had been. Should never have told KID about them, never let him know it was even an option. He  _knew_  this would happen!  
  
KID let out a gargled moan that would surely haunt Shinichi’s nightmares for weeks to come. It was the sound of a dying animal - the pitiful, mournful howl of a last cry for help. Then he was retching, and vomited out a mouthful of blood. It hit the deck with a glassy ring.  
  
A glassy ring…?  
  
Shinichi stared. In the middle of the puddle of blood KID just spat out sat a gleaming crystal, slightly smaller than a golf ball. It glimmered faintly in the moonlight bathing the roof, with an ethereal red glow.  
  
Snake took a step forward. “That’s-!”  
  
KID was pale, and sweating, and all but on death’s door, but he summoned a grin all the same. “I told you,” he croaked. “That I was going to destroy it.” Then he reached into his cape, and produced from seemingly nowhere…  _fireworks_?  
  
Even with shaking fingers, it was a matter of seconds for him to scoop up the strange gemstone and attach it to the payload. Snake appeared to realise what he was about to do a second too late, yelling, “Stop or I’ll-”  
  
KID ignored him, and met Shinichi’s gaze across the deck.  
  
“Eyes on the prize, tantei-kun,” he whispered, then lit the rocket.  
  
It took off with a sharp whistle into the sky. Snake’s eyes followed it, almost involuntarily, and his gun lifted with the same movement.  
  
Shinichi saw his window.   
  
The rocket exploded overhead with a bang, bursting into a mesmerising flower of red, sparkling light.   
  
Less than a second later, a super charged soccer ball slammed into the gunman’s head with satisfying force.  
  
Snake went down like a sack of rocks. Hakuba scrambled after him, confiscating his gun and slapping handcuffs on him while he was still out cold.  
  
In the same breath, Shinichi dove for KID, who had fallen terrifyingly still since letting the rocket off. “KID!”  
  
His eyes were closed, his chest unmoving. Blood edged his lips, and the moonlight turned his skin frighteningly pale.  
  
With Snake secured, Hakuba approached them, though kept his distance, as though afraid even his touch might make things worse. “Is he…”  
  
“It’s my fault,” Shinichi muttered. “If only I’d been faster, or better prepared, he wouldn’t be-”   
  
He couldn’t say it. He didn’t want to make it real.  
  
A cold evening wind tumbled across the skydeck. This high up, the chaos of activity in the park and museum sounded muted and distant.   
  
They’d caught Snake, and numerous other agents of the Black Org. But at what price?  
  
“Oi, don’t… write me off just yet,” KID wheezed.  
  
Shinichi froze, staring. He hadn’t imagined it, had he? “…KID?”  
  
The thief cracked open an eye, just a sliver. He took in a long, shuddering breath. “Tantei-kun. You got him?”  
  
“You  _idiot_ ,” Shinichi said, hands gripping his sleeve. He wasn’t going to cry. He  _wasn’t_. “It could have  _killed_  you! It  _should_  have killed you!”

“I’ve… always been lucky,” KID rasped.

"You're not allowed to die, you hear me," he gasped. "Because if you're a monster... then I'm... then Shinichi is..."

"Hey now." KID raised a hand – the one white glove not yet drenched in blood, and patted him on the head gently. “There was only one monster, right? And you got him. I knew you would. Thanks, tantei-kun. Couldn't have done it without you."

 

…………………

 

The heist ended with KID taking to the sky moments before the police burst onto the roof to investigate the fireworks.   
  
The thief left a terrifying amount of blood behind. Hakuba fretted about it for a few minutes – and Shinichi did too, given that KID had since destroyed the source of his immortality – but he had been moving under his own power, so Pandora’s influence must have healed the worst of it before he destroyed it. The bullets had been before the poison, after all, and KID had survived  _that_ , against all odds.  
  
He resolved to check on him anyway, the next day, if only to settle his own jangled nerves. Hakuba would no doubt do the same – apparently Kuroba had slipped up enough that the detective was once again certain of his identity, though once again, had nothing concrete to prove it.  
  
Shinichi had started to suspect Hakuba didn’t even want to prove it, so much as confirm once and for all that he was right, rather than do anything with the information.

“I can’t believe I missed the whole thing,” Hattori complained to him as they headed back to Beika. “While you and that jerk Hakuba were up on the roof.”

“You flushed out the compromised ambulance, though,” Shinichi reminded him. He yawned. It had been a long night, and well past his younger identity’s usual enforced bedtime.

“Yeah, with  _your_  tipoff,” he grumbled. “But still. It was a success, right? KID didn’t die, and we caught a whole bunch of them.”

“Yeah.” Snake was in custody, along with an impressive 32 of his cohorts. Their biggest success against the Org yet. Jodie had been ecstatic.

A small slice of the Black Organisation finally behind bars. Too early to tell if the police could learn anything from them.

“It’s a start, though,” Shinichi murmured.

Hattori grinned, and ruffled his hair. “It sure is.”

 

…………………

 

KID stood on the edge of the rooftop of Hotel Villa Fontaine, dressed in a fresh suit. He’d rented a room and stashed supplies in advance – the view wasn’t fantastic, but it gave him a good vantage over Ueno Park and its surrounds, with very little surveillance to avoid. And best of all, he wouldn’t be woken up by Hakuba inevitably banging down his door at the crack of dawn.

Two suits thoroughly ruined in as many weeks. Hakuba once again on his case about KID. The Delong Star Ruby not so much as budged from its case, though he'd never been interested in it in the first place. Shot five times. His hand ghosted across his stomach, still expecting to feel the uncomfortable wetness and unnatural pull on his skin.  
  
Smooth and unscarred, just like the rest, with only the memory of pain. A deep coldness in his bones and a lingering nausea was all that was left to mark the occasion.  
  
On the positive side, Snake was behind bars, along with a not-insignificant number of his cronies. Even if none of them talked, identification alone would be invaluable. Organisations were built on networks, and pulling enough threads had ways of unravelling the entire cardigan.   
  
And most importantly, Pandora was now out of the picture.  
  
His greatest trick yet.  
  
Kaito uncurled his hand. It held a small pill bottle, along with a crystal bauble.

It had been cruel of him, but he’d needed the detective to tell the lie for him, to give his performance weight. To convince Snake once and for all that Pandora had been destroyed.

A bit of sleight of hand. To make sure the detective saw him swallow the pills, and react in a way that convinced Snake they were more than just a ruse. More sleight of hand, to make it appear he threw up a glowing gemstone. A little bit of chemistry, to make it appear to glow. Then a good old fashioned explosion to destroy the fake.

It had been cheesy, really. Melodramatic, though he hadn't needed to fake the pain or the blood. But so long as the audience believed it, his task as a magician was accomplished.

"I hope you can rest easy now, Dad,” he murmured into the wind.  
  
All was quiet below – only a handful of police units left on the streets surrounding Ueno park. Tidying up loose ends, doing extra patrols. No sign of any strays from Snake’s cohort.

With a snap of his wrist, the pills and crystal vanished back into his sleeves. He'd been willing to do it, to get Snake behind bars and Pandora destroyed. But thanks to the little detective's efforts, and a little bit of magic, it hadn't come to that. Kaito KID, against all odds, would get to have his cake and eat it too.

He would have to find a safe place for them. Somewhere he wouldn't be too tempted, in the dark moments, when red flickered at the edges of his thoughts, when Akako's portents echoed in his memories. Maybe on a time-release, like the hidden room.

Overhead, the gibbous moon shone bright.

He sighed. "I'm going to need contacts after all."

 

 

 


End file.
